


The Place

by soon2befamous13



Category: Original Work
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-03 19:26:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 27,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1755149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soon2befamous13/pseuds/soon2befamous13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chloe Burke was born with a blue jewel on her finger, which means she is of high intelligence. It also means that at the start of her sophomore year, she gets flown off to the Place, where she will be trained with a Team of five other people. She makes new friends, and gets a boyfriend, which will hopefully distract her from her non-Jeweled ex-best friend, and her irritating partner. Everything is going relatively fine until her and another Team starts getting notes from "the Rogues". Who are they, and what do they want?</p>
<p>This summary is literally the worst thing I've ever written.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

“Well, here it is,” I say to my best friend, Kelly Romana. “I’m off to the Place.”

“I wish you didn’t have to go,” she mutters, staring at the floor, her light brown hair covering her face.

We are in my room, my bags piled around us. This Tuesday morning is the last time I’ll see Kelly before I get flown away.

“You know I don’t want to leave you,” I say carefully. This is not a lie. I don’t want to leave her. But I am actually thrilled to be going to the Place. I feel awful to feel so excited when she looks so depressed, but what can I do? I’ve been waiting for this moment since I was born.

“You should just stay,” Kelly blurts out. She seems shocked that she’s said it at first, but then her eyes gleam, and she gets into the idea. “I mean it,” she continues. “Just because you’re born with a jewel on your nail doesn’t mean you have to give away your childhood for some twisted System.” Her eyes aren’t just gleaming now, they’re glowing, and I take a half step back from her. “Seriously! That jewel doesn’t mean anything!” I run my thumb instinctively over the familiar bump on the middle fingernail of my right hand, feeling the blue jewel there. “I’m practically as smart as you anyway! So why do you get to go there? Everyone should have an opportunity! Just stay, and screw the System!”

“Kelly…” I start slowly. “You know I can’t do that.”

The frenzied light leaves her eyes. Now, they darken.

“You can’t,” she growls, “or you won’t?”

“Kelly—”

“Forget it!” she yells, pushing away the arm I had stretched out to her. “I should have known this would happen! My mom warned me, you know. The first day of first grade, when I told her about you. She said, ‘Sweetie, don’t go around making friends with the Jeweled. She’s just going to leave you.’ But I told her no, there was no way you would do that. I convinced myself—” her eyes are shining with tears now “—that somehow I’d find a way to make you stay. But now you’re going just like my mom said.”

“Well, maybe you should have listened to her,” I snap, getting irritated. “You knew I was Jeweled; you knew I was going to leave. So stop being such a baby about it! It’s the System; I have to!”

“It doesn’t have to be that way,” she says quietly.

“Yes it does.”

She looks at me with such a scornful, disbelieving look that I feel self-conscious. No one ever looks at me like that. “You just don’t get it, do you?” And those are the last words she says to me. I stand mutely in my room and listened to her stomp down the stairs and slam the front door.

I really don’t get it. I have no idea what she’s feeling. I was brought up knowing I’d be sent to the Place, because I was special. Because I was Jeweled.

I guess I’m a mutant. I’m not really sure what the PC way of putting it is. The whole Jeweled thing started around maybe a hundred years ago. Babies started being born with jewels on the middle fingernail of one of their hands, either red or blue. At first, people just sort of ignored it, thinking, yeah, it was strange, but it didn’t mean anything. Then the babies started to grow up, and they ended up being a bit more special than people had originally thought.

The babies born with blue Jewels were highly intelligent, without fail; the babies with red Jewels were astoundingly athletically gifted. Once the government realized this, they jumped right on it. Don’t ask me how they did it, but soon the government created the System: “All children born with a jewel in the United States are required, by law, to be sent to a training facility their sophomore year of high school and begin field work at the age of sixteen.” Most parents, naturally, disagreed with this. But then they found out how much money they’d be making, and most of them shut their mouths.

Besides, it was quickly proven that Jeweled children were ideal for field work. The blue Jewels were too smart to get caught; the red Jewels were too fast and strong. So it wasn’t like they were in real danger, really.  
Now most of the rebellions against the System are by non-Jeweled kids and parents. The government ignores them, of course; they’re just jealous. All the Jeweled kids can’t wait to be flown out to the Place. Its real name is something like “Exclusive Training Facility For Jeweled Children”, but we all just call it the Place.

Most Jeweled kids go to expensive private elementary and high schools, their parents knowing that they’ll get all the money back tenfold when their kids get to that facility. I’m no exception. I’ve been going to private school since first grade, which is where I met Kelly.

The Jeweled kids at my school mostly all stick together. Blue Jewels hang out with other blue Jewels; red Jewels hang out with other red Jewels. My mom told me on the first day of school to try and only befriend other Jeweled kids, because if I make friends with non-Jeweleds, I’ll just have to leave them behind. I chose not to listen to her. You see where that got me.

Anyway, once the System was invented, they got more creative. They decided that every Jeweled kid should have a partner, someone that would be their Half. One blue jewel and one red jewel together would make a Pair. Pairs were chosen completely at random, and most of the time they didn’t know each other beforehand.

Then they decided to get even more creative, and made Teams. A team consisted of six kids in total: three Pairs, with three girls, three boys, three red jewels, three blue jewels. There would be a girl-girl pair, a boy-boy pair, and a girl-boy pair.

I’ve spent most of my life thinking about who my Half could be, and what our relationship would be like. It can go many ways. A person can fall in love with their Half, be best friends with their Half, be their Half’s mortal enemy, or just work together for the allotted five years and then part ways.

I decided a while ago that I wanted to be a part of a girl-girl pair. This idea is reinforced even more by Kelly’s reaction to my leaving. I have a sinking feeling that I won’t be hearing from her much.  
The plane leaves at noon, so my mom drives me and we make it there at 11:45. Cutting it a bit close, but hey, that’s my mom. She hugs me goodbye and says that even though my dad couldn’t be there, he wants me to know how proud he is of me. I don’t know why. It’s not like I’ve done anything to get here except being born.

I board the plane, noticing that nearly everyone on it is from my grade, and Jeweled. I look around for a vacant seat when I hear someone calling me over. It’s Jasmine, a girl who went to my private school and was in a few of my classes. She’s a casual acquaintance at best, but I’ll take her over sitting by myself. My mind made up, I walk over to her and sit down next to her. She’s got a blue Jewel, like me.

“This is so exciting!” She squeals.

I nod and smile, trying to match her enthusiasm. Kelly seems to have nipped all my excitement in the bud.

“I hope my Half is a boy,” she gushes. “Then we could fall in love and get married and have babies…”

This was a mistake.

“If we have a boy, I’ll probably let him name it, because I’m not big on boy names, but if we have a girl, we’re naming her Marissa, no exceptions.”

I kind of let her ramble on like this for a while, until I stretch and pretend to yawn. “Hey, listen, I’m kind of tired. Planes wear me out. I’m gonna listen to music and rest, all right?” Thankfully, she nods, and turns to the person across the aisle to talk their ear off. I turn my back to her and smirk as I slip my ear buds in. Poor sucker.

I guess I was more tired than I thought, because when I wake up, we’re landing. True, it wasn’t a particularly long flight; just under two hours. But still.

We all go outside and there’s a lady directing people into different lines. I go to the girls with blue Jewels line, and soon, we’re headed towards the Place.

The Place is actually five different buildings, all about as big as, if not bigger than, my private school. The building we enter is the sophomore building, for us newbies who are just going to start training this year. The other buildings are for juniors, seniors, 19-, and 20-year-olds.

We’re given a brief tour of the building, being shown the various training rooms, the Cafeteria, and some of the Dorms. The Dorm rooms are really nice, with a little common room when you enter, and two doors that split off into the Girls’ Dorm, and the Boys’ Dorm, each with own bathroom.

Once we’re done with the tour, we’re taken to a lady who is going to give us the name of our Half. We’re all nervous and excited. You can feel the tension crackling.

She reads off the names in a monotone. “Chloe Burke,” she reads out after the first three girls had gone off with their Half.

I step forward.

She inspects her computer screen, and says, “All right, you’re a part of a boy-girl pair…” My heart drops a little, but I try not to let it show. “…And your half is…Ryan Gray.”

My mouth drops open.

She walks over to the director of a group of red jewel boys. “Is Ryan Gray with you?” I hear her ask. I then watch her pull a boy out of the group and walk him over to me. “Ryan Gray,” she says, “this is your Half, Chloe Burke.”

His smug face breaks out into a grin just as mine plummets. He raises a blonde eyebrow and stares into my yellowish eyes with his clear blue ones. It seems like he’s about to say something before I blurt out, “No.”

“Excuse me?” the lady narrows her eyes at me.

“I just mean, wow, what a coincidence,” I say with a fake smile and as much enthusiasm that I can muster. “We went to the same school.”

The lady raises her eyebrows in surprise. “Well, that certainly is unusual,” she states, before looking back down at her computer. “Apparently, the other two Pairs on your Team are in the Dorm already. I’ll find someone to take you there. Tara!” she calls at an unsuspecting girl who can’t be much older than 21. The girl jumps and walks over to us.

“Yes, Ms. Larken?”

“Take these two up to Dorm 187, please.”

“All right!”

As we start to walk away, I turn back and see Jasmine mouth “Lucky!” at me. I have to laugh at her total misunderstanding of this situation.

As we follow Tara down the hallway, Ryan falls in step next to me. “Heeeey, Chloe,” he greets me mockingly, just the way he used to in seventh grade. He flirted with me a lot that year, and I’d kind of fallen for it, pathetically. Then eighth grade came and it was like I didn’t exist anymore. Which was perfectly fine with me.

“Shut up, Ryan,” I snap back at him. He smiles, apparently pleased with himself.

When we make it to the Dorm, Tara knocks timidly on the door, and it’s immediately opened by a stunning blonde woman. No way she’s sixteen; she must be our female Team leader. “These must be our boy-girl pair,” she says.

“That’s right!” Tara chirps.

“Well, I’ll take it from here. Thanks, Tara,” Blondie dismisses smoothly.

“You’re welcome!” With that, Tara all but skips back down the hall.

Blondie lets us in, still smiling, but when she closes the door she rolls her eyes. “I can’t stand that woman,” she mutters. “How the hell is she so chipper all the time?”

“Was that Tara?” asks a tall, dark, and handsome guy who must be her Half, the male Team leader.

“You guessed it,” Blondie huffs. “Have a seat,” she says to me and Ryan, gesturing to the furniture in the common room. Two of the chairs and one of the couches are taken up by two girls and two boys, who must be the other two Pairs in our Team. I sit in the last available chair; Ryan sits on another couch.

“Well, now that you’re all here, I might as well introduce myself,” Blondie says. “I’m Erica, and that’s Adam. We’re your Team leaders; we’ll oversee your training, and you’ll answer to us during Tasks, but other than that, you really won’t see us much. Now, why don’t you all go around in a circle or something and introduce yourselves.” As she waves her hand around, I notice the red jewel glint on her fingernail. So she’s the beauty and he’s the brains. Although really, he could be both.

There’s an awkward silence for a few seconds, then a strawberry blonde girl clears her throat and says, “Um, hi. I’m Ashley Peach. I’m from Seattle. I’m an Athletic. And um…I’m really looking forward to getting to know all of you and becoming friends!” Someone scoffs, but Ashley just smiles.

Good for her, I think. It must be hard speaking first in a room of strangers.

“I guess I’ll go next,” the girl next to Ashley says. “I’m Natalie Short. Intelligence. I have a brother.” We wait for her to go on, but apparently she’s done. She brings a creamy brown hand to her raven black hair self-consciously, and I finally realize it’s my turn to speak.

“Uh, I’m Chloe Burke. I’m an Intelligence. And…I’m looking forward to being friends with you all too.” Ashley flashes me a smile, and I return it.

“I’m Ryan Gray,” Ryan says. “Athletic. And I guess I’m glad to meet all of you, except Chloe.”

“Why aren’t you glad to meet Chloe?” Erica asks lazily.

“I already know her,” he answers.

“We went to the same school,” I elaborate.

Erica raises her eyebrows and exchanges a look with Adam. “Well, that’s weird. Next?”

“I’m Matt Chang,” a cute Asian guy with glasses introduces himself. “Intelligence. If I’m being perfectly honest, I’m not that thrilled to meet any of you.”

The Spanish-looking guy, who Kelly would have described as “hawt”, sitting in the chair next to him rolls his eyes. “Alex Martinez. Athletic. I think this whole Pair thing is bullshit.” When he finishes, he glares at Matt, who glares right back. This kind of unsettles me, and I can tell Ashley is jarred, too. Aren’t you supposed to be thrilled to meet your Team, and your Half?

“Well, aren’t you all just little balls of sunshine,” Erica says sarcastically after an awkward pause. “Anyway, be ready to get up early for training tomorrow. Come on, Adam.” With that, they’re gone.

“You think they’ve always been like that?” Alex asks.

“Who? Like what?” Ashley questions, seeming eager for conversation.

“Erica and Adam. Like they have a thing for each other, but they’re not doing anything about it.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for Pairs to date,” I butt in. “Cuz most of the time they break up, but then they still have to work together.”

I see Natalie nod, but Alex just rolls his eyes again. “Whatever,” he says. “They just need to bang already.” Then his phone rings, and he answers it and starts speaking in rapid Spanish as he retreats to the Boys’ Dorm.

This seems to be the queue for everyone to take out their phones, and one by one, Ashley, Matt, and Ryan all leave the Dorm, I guess to meet their friends. Natalie goes to the Girls’ Dorm with her book, leaving me alone in the common room. Only now do I take out my phone.

I dial Kelly’s number and listen to it ring. Then I hear her voice say, “Hey, it’s Kelly. I’m not here right now, so leave a message after the beep and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.” Beep!

“Hey, Kelly, it’s Chloe,” I say into the phone. “I really miss you. Today’s been crazy. You won’t guess who my Half is: Ryan Gray. It’s awful. There’s one girl on my Team who seems nice, but everyone else seems like they’d rather be anywhere else. Basically, it just sucks, and I really wish—” The message cuts off. “I really wish you were here,” I finish in a whisper.

To keep from feeling so depressed, I take all my stuff to my room and set it up. Because I’m the girl-boy pair, I get the single bed on the right wall, while Ashley and Natalie get the bunk beds. Natalie’s reading on the bottom bunk. I take a hint from her and read my own book until I’m ready to go to sleep.

 

“TRAINING TIME! TIME TO GET UP!” These are the words that rudely awaken me at 6:30 AM. Lucky I went to sleep early last night, or I would be murderous right now.

It doesn’t take me long to get ready, and I’m sitting in the common room with Ryan and Matt by 6:45. The rest of them join us at around 7:00, and Erica and Adam lead us to our training room, which is filled with athletic equipment. “All right, so you’ll be training with Mallory and Jason’s Team,” Adam tells us as we walk in. “Taylor over there is your Athletic trainer, and Jamie’s your Intelligence trainer. Have fun!” Then they leave with who I assume are Mallory and Jason.

“They don’t stick around long, do they?” Matt mutters.

“Okay, I just want to tell you, since this is your first week, training is going to be different than it usually is,” Taylor starts. “We’re pretty much going to give you free reign in order for you to get to know everyone, and for me and Jamie to asses your strengths and weaknesses. You’ll be split into different groups every day: Monday will be random, Tuesday is a group of boys and a group of girls, Wednesday is an Intelligence group and an Athletics group, Thursday is female Intelligence and male Athletics in one group and vice versa, and Friday you’ll be working solely with you Half.”

“Intelligence, come with me!” Jamie calls out. “Athletics, stay with Taylor.”

Natalie, Matt, three kids from the other Team, and I follow Jamie out of the room and into another one. This room has various stations all over it. We’ve heard about these. They resemble real-world problems that could come up in Tasks. Some of them are math, some are language, some are just knowledge. “Today, I’m not picky on what you do,” Jamie tells us. “You might as well all work together on these, and get to know each other, like Taylor said, because you’ll definitely be spending a lot of time together. Go for it.”

I shrug and go over to one of the stations. A girl from the other Team, the only Intelligence girl on that Team, follows me. “Hey,” she greets me. “I’m Dessy. Well, I’m Desiree Parks, but all my friends call me Dessy. Not that I have very many,” she adds as an afterthought.

I giggle. “Hey, I’m Chloe. I’m glad someone is interested in making friends. Practically everyone on my Team is completely antisocial, or just a jerk.”

Dessy clicks her tongue, shaking her head back and forth. The top of her hair is close to my color, a super dark brown, but where it ends by her shoulders, it explodes into stripes of different colors. Her eyes are huge, and the most perfect combination of green and brown I’ve ever seen. “My Team’s okay. The boys seem nice. The girls seem kind of like the popular type who are likely to ignore me for the rest of eternity, but they’re hot, so that’s a plus.”

She pauses for a moment and then widens her eyes. A slight blush creeps over her tan freckled cheeks as she stammers, “Hehe. Um, did I forget to mention? I’m a lesbian. I usually end up saying it way too early in a conversation. Which, in retrospect, is probably one of the reasons I don’t have that many friends.”

I just laugh. “Hey, I don’t judge. And I don’t know why people aren’t tripping over their feet to be friends with you, you’re hilarious.”

She grins at me. “Well, awkward introductions safely out of the way, want to try this station?”

The station involves us being in Italy and having to communicate with locals to try and find a drug den. Italian is my specialty language (even though I’m fluent in pretty much all of them), so I take over the station while Dessy tells me all about her Team.

She’s a part of a girl-girl pair, with a girl named Elizabeth Cook. Elizabeth, according to Dessy, is a “vapid, overconfident, cheerleader with great hair”. The other girl, another Athletic, seems slightly better. Unlike Elizabeth, this girl, Alice Cannon, didn’t care when Dessy announced she was a lesbian, and actually clapped. Dessy says she doesn’t really know much about the guys yet.

I find the drug den, and we move onto the next station. This one has a lot of math, and I let Dessy take over. I tell her about Ryan, and everyone else on my Team. At the next station, we run into Matt and a boy from Dessy’s Team, whose name ends up being Evan Dorsey. We collaborate, me doing most of the talking, Dessy doing the math, Matt cracking all the codes, and Evan taking over when we need to know random facts. Every time he knows something we don’t, his light green eyes glint underneath his sandy blonde hair.

I feel a bit guilty about leaving out Natalie, and the blue-haired boy on their Team named Tyrone Adams, but they seem to be doing fine. Soon I forget about them, and then it’s time for lunch.  
We eat with the Athletics, but they eat at one table and we eat at the other. I point out Ashley, Ryan, and Alex to Dessy, and she points out Jack Livingston, Alice, and Elizabeth. Elizabeth looks just like every stereotypical cheerleader type you can think of, with long blonde hair tied in a ponytail, a perfect body, and just the right amount of makeup. Alice is a bit different. Her body is perfect, too, but her hair is dark, and she has on dark purple lipstick. Jack has dark skin and very white teeth that seem to glow every time he opens his mouth.

After lunch, the Athletics go to the Intelligence training room and we go the Athletics training room, because it’s important that we can do everything in case we need to.

Dessy and I head over to the rock climbing wall and have a race for who can make it to the top. I win. I laugh at her from the top while she desperately clings to the wall. “Climbing is not my strong suit!” she calls up at me.

“I can see that!” I call back.

I lower myself down to the ground and unclip my harness. When I step out of it, though, I trip and am about to fall on my butt when I feel someone catch me. Dessy? No, that doesn’t make any sense; she’s still on the wall. Then who—?

“Whoa, there,” a distinctly male voice says from behind me. Evan. “Careful.”

I quickly free myself from his arms and regain my footing. “I would have been fine,” I mutter, feeling myself blush.

“Yeah, right,” he snickers. “Maybe I should stick around, you know, make sure you don’t lose you balance again.”

By this time, Dessy’s reached the floor and gracefully gotten out of her harness. “Well, we can’t stop you if you want to tag along,” she says.

“But,” I cut in, “I’m not sure you’ll want to do what we’re doing next.”

“Yeah?” He raises his eyebrows. “And what’s that?”

I smile wickedly. “Dancing.”

Surprisingly, he stays with us as we go to the dancing station. There’s fast dancing, slow dancing, hip-hop, and even ballet. Dessy clicks the ballroom dancing option, and the floor lights up. A screen pops up and tells you what you’re supposed to do.

The lights attract the right of the people in the room, and soon everyone is picking a partner. Dessy pairs up with Matt, Natalie shrugs and pairs up with Tyrone, leaving me and Evan. Crap. This isn’t what I had in mind.

Evan looks at the screen, and then extends his hand. “M’lady?”

I roll my eyes, and put my hand in his. “Yeah, yeah.” Then we glance back at the screen and start dancing.

It isn’t as bad as I though it would be, and it actually ends up being pretty fun. Dessy takes the role of the guy, and leads Matt all over the floor, which is even funnier considering how tiny she is. Tyrone is hopeless, and trips over his own feet and falls flat on his face. At this point, Natalie takes a step back from him and says, “I didn’t do it.”

As for me and Evan, the initial awkwardness goes away, and we both end up being fairly decent. I giggle when he twirls me around, and we end the dance with him dipping me dramatically. I’m laughing and out of breath, but he still seems totally composed, and just smiles, his eyes looking into mine. Suddenly I feel self-conscious again, and I let him bring me back up from the dip. I run over to Dessy and she whispers, “You guys killed that.”

“In a good way or a bad way?”

“In the best way possible.”

I grin. “Well, you weren’t too bad yourself, leading Matt like that. I never would’ve thought he’d agree to it.”

She shrugs. “Eh, we’re just trying to fulfill a stereotype. The lesbian leads the gay guy.”

This catches me off guard. “Gay guy?”

“Oh, come on, Chloe, what straight guy would let himself be led by a girl?”

“I can think of, like, one…maybe.”

“Uh-huh. Well, I’ll have you know, I have excellent gaydar. I’ll bet you one dollar that Matt’s gay.”

I hold my hands up in surrender. “Hey, I’ll take your word for it. I have terrible gaydar.”

“All right then.”

We do a few more exercises until I’m exhausted and training is over. I go right back to the Dorm and flop down on my bed. I’ll have to get up again for dinner, but right now I just want to sleep.

Unfortunately, Ashley has other plans.

“Hey, Chloe?” I hear her say.

I groan into my pillow.

“I know you’re tired, but can I ask you something?”

I sit up. “I guess. What?” I notice dismally that Natalie is already asleep on the bottom bunk. Dammit.

“So, you and Ryan went to the same school, right?”

I nod.

“I was just wondering if you and he, ever, you know…?”

I blink. I am literally too tired to even comprehend what she is saying right now. “What?”

“Do you like him?” She says slowly.

“What? No. Ew. I barely know him, and from what I do know, he’s a total jerk,” I answer, finally getting what she’s saying.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes. 100%. If you want him, go for it.” My eyelids start to droop.

“Oh, I don’t like him,” Ashley says quickly. “Elizabeth does. I just wanted to make sure for her.”

“Yeah, well, tell her to butter her own popcorn,” I say, sinking back to my pillow.

“Huh?”

But I’m already drifting off to sleep.


	2. Chapter Two

Thursday morning, I wake up on my own and am ready for training by 6:45. I’m already getting the hang of this.

We all gather in the Athletic training room and Taylor addresses us. “Today, all female Intelligence will be trained with male Athletics and vice versa. Male Intelligence and female Athletics, you’re with me first. The rest of you, go to the Intelligence training room with Jamie.”

Once we get to the Intelligence training room, Jamie says, “Okay, you’ll be completing the stations in pairs today. Not your Pair,” she elaborates, “just pick a partner and do the stations with them.”

Dessy and I pair up immediately, and I see Ryan and Alex pair up, along with Jack and Natalie. Jack looks pleased. Natalie does not.

We head to a two-person station and begin our search for an escaped serial killer. While we’re doing this, Dessy says dramatically, “Well, I’m officially in love.”

“Oh, really? With who?”

“Okay, well, I’m not in love. But I’m definitely infatuated.”

“I ask again, with who? I’m sure you’re not talking about lovely Desmond Femos.” That’s the name of the murderer we’re searching for. We just came across a note written in code and I’m wishing for Matt.

“No, not with Desmond Femos, although his coding skills are impeccable,” Dessy giggles. “Actually, it’s Alice.”

“Purple lipstick Alice?”

“Yep.”

“How come?”

“Well, for one, she’s gorgeous. And she’s actually really funny. Last night, I laughed so hard I cried.”

“Is she straight?” I finally cracked the stupid code and now there’s the issue of scaling a wall, which involves math, so it’s Dessy’s turn.

“Way to rain on my parade,” Dessy huffs. “Yes, I’m like 99% she is straight. But I’m allowed my wishful fantasies and heartbreaking unrequited love.”

“Yeah, well, we can be lonely together,” I say.

“HA!” She laughs loudly. “Yeah right. Your Half is, like, the hawtest guy EVAR,” she mocks, her voice thick with sarcasm, “and I’m pretty sure Evan is already in love with you.”

Now it’s my turn to laugh. “You are deeply mistaken,” I say. “Hey, I see Desmond!”

We put our romantic lives aside to finish the station, which we do.

As we move to the next station, Dessy says, “Well, if we can’t discuss our own love lives, can we at least talk about everyone else’s?”

I scoff. “You mean like Elizabeth and Ryan?”

“Elizabeth and Ryan? I was talking about Matt and Alex! What happened with Elizabeth and Ryan?”

“Noth—Wait, what do you mean, Matt and Alex?! They hate each other!”

“Nuh-uh. You go first. What about Elizabeth and Ryan?”

I sigh. I wonder why she’s so interested until I remember that Elizabeth is her Half. They seem like they’re from such different worlds that I totally forgot. “Nothing happened, per se. But Ashley asked me if I liked Ryan, and when I asked why, she said that Elizabeth liked him.”

“I guess it makes sense,” Dessy says. “The head cheerleader and the quarterback. It’s a match made in popular hell.”

I snort. “Okay, now please tell me what you meant when you said Matt and Alex.”

“Can you not see the sexual tension? One of these days, they’re either going to rip each other’s throats out or tear each other’s clothes off. And I’m guessing it’s going to be the latter.”

“I don’t know about that,” I say skeptically. I guess I could see Matt, but Alex? He seems like he would be a womanizing jock jerk, just like Ryan.

“I’m seldom wrong about these things,” Dessy says, seeing my reluctance to agree. “At least say you’ll ship them.”

I laugh. “All right, fine. I’ll tell you all about what happens between them in the common room. But I’m telling you, nothing’s going to.”

We go on like this until lunchtime, where we split into our usual groups of Intelligence at one table and Athletics at the other. “So,” I start, addressing Evan, “how was it? Who paired up with who?”

“It was okay,” he shrugs. “I paired up with Matt, Elizabeth paired up with Alice, and Ashley was forced to pair up with Tyrone. She made the most of it, though.”

“Hey!” Tyrone protests.

“It wasn’t fun like yesterday,” Evan continues, ignoring Tyrone. “With the dancing and stuff. We just all kept to ourselves.”

“Matt,” Dessy says, leaning across the table in order to see him. “Are you getting along any better with Alex?”

Matt actually laughs so hard he starts choking on his lunch and Evan has to smack him on the back. When he regains he breath, he chokes out, “God no. Are you kidding? He hates me.”

“But why?” Dessy asks curiously. “You barely know each other.”

Matt shrugs. “He’s just an arrogant douche. He hates the concept of Pairs, and thinks the whole System is stupid. Plus he just hates me in general. I mean, the feeling is mutual, so it’s not like I can complain that much.”

“I’m starting to dislike the whole Pair thing, too,” I admit. “It’s not so bad now, but when we have to start Tasks? I’ll have to spend every second of it with Ryan.”

Everyone looks over at him after I say this, including me. He’s right in the center of everything, as usual, with Alex on his left and Elizabeth on his right. Elizabeth has her head on his shoulder, and they appear to be holding hands under the table. I guess the feeling was reciprocated. I feel a quick stab of jealousy, and turn back around. It doesn’t mean anything. I’ve always been the jealous type, even when I have no right to be. I’ve never even had a real boyfriend.

“Looks like Elizabeth and Ryan are dating,” Dessy comments.

“That didn’t take long,” Tyrone snorts, running a hand through his blue hair.

“It never does,” I say matter-of-factly. “Back in school, he’d have a new girlfriend practically every week. He dated three girls at once in eighth grade.”

Everyone gives their sounds of disapproval, and I feel an odd sense of pride. I never gossiped much back in school because I wasn’t very popular, and I was always the last one to know things. Here, though, I know more than anyone else about Ryan. But…he also knows more about me. What if he’s gossiping about me to the Athletics? Nah. I’m not important enough to be gossiped about. He wouldn’t bother.

“Three girlfriends?” Matt asks incredulously.

“Yup. And I’m pretty sure they all knew about it, but they didn’t care.”

“Dammit. I haven’t even had one girlfriend yet,” Dessy says glumly.

“Yeah, well, neither have I,” says Tyrone.

“And I’ve never had a boyfriend,” I add.

“Neither have I,” Matt says.

Everyone looks at him slightly suspiciously, but he just sits there. Dessy raises her eyebrows at me, and I smile.

We’re forced to do Athletic training next, and Dessy and I go to a station we hadn’t been to yesterday: basketball. (I swear, they have every single athletic activity you can imagine here.)

We practice doing foul shots and lay-ups to pass the time when Ryan and Matt approach us. I hastily put the ball back and start to leave the court, but Ryan grabs my arm. “Hey, wait,” he says. “We were gonna get a game going.”

I’m about to say something like, “Too bad,” when Dessy says, “Sure! We’ll play.”

I give her a look, and she just shrugs. Ryan calls out, “Jack!” and waves him over. I watch Jack practically drag Natalie towards the basketball court.

When he gets here, he asks, “What are the teams?”

“You go with Dessy and Chloe,” Alex tells him. “We’ll take Natalie.”

I think for a second he’s going to complain, but instead he flashes his white teeth and says, “Looks like we’re a team.”

Natalie seems hesitant to go over to Ryan and Alex, but Jack gives her a playful push and she scurries away.

It’s our ball first. I get into my position, and hope that Jack won’t hog the ball the entire time, or yell at Dessy and me if we make a mistake. That’s what I hated about basketball in school, even though I wasn’t that bad at it.

Turns out I had nothing to worry about. The first thing Jack does is pass to me, and I shoot the ball at the basket. I miss, but he’s there to get the rebound, and we make a point. Alex and Ryan spend most of the game passing to each other, and the one time Alex passes to Natalie, she just kind of stares at the ball in her hands.

By the end of the game, we’ve lost, but I don’t care that much. Sweat is dripping off my forehead, and I know I’m bright red. For a second I think of Elizabeth, and how cool and composed she looked coming out of Athletic training, and I feel unbelievably ugly. I shake off the feeling as quickly as possible. It’s not like I care what anyone thinks, anyway.

After that, we all split up again, and Dessy and I jump rope the rest of the time. Then she goes to her common room, and I go to mine.

Since there’s still practically an hour left until dinner, and I’m not as tired as I was yesterday, I decide to stay in the common room and read. Natalie and Matt have the same idea, so we all sit separately, me and Natalie on chairs, and Matt on the couch.

Ryan takes one look at this and throws his hands in the air. “Okay, I’m ditching this nerd party and meeting Elizabeth.”

“I’m gonna call my mom,” Ashley says unnecessarily, going into the Girls’ Dorm.

Alex, who’d been in the Boys’ Dorm during this, comes into the common room now. “Where did—” he starts to say. Then he notices what Matt is reading and says, “Hey, you read those too?”

Matt, who hadn’t looked up when Alex entered the room, continues reading his book. “Matt!” Alex tries again.

I’m pretty sure it’s the shock of his name coming out of Alex’s mouth that makes Matt look up quickly. “What?”

“I asked if you read those books,” Alex explains.

Matt rolls his eyes. “Obviously I’m reading one right now.”

Alex will not be deterred. “Which one are you on?”

Matt blinks. “The second one.”

“Seriously? That one’s my favorite! What part are you at?” As he says this, Alex walks over and stands behind Matt, leaning over him to look at the book. This puts their faces nearly next to each other, and I can see it’s all Matt can do not to scoot away. Though why is up to interpretation.

“Um…” Matt launches into an explanation of where he is in the book, and Alex’s eyes light up. He sits down next to Matt on the couch and they get into a heated discussion on the characters. I smile to myself, thinking how much Dessy will love to hear about this.

 

She is. I tell her right before we walk into the training room on Friday, and she squeals so loudly that everyone turns to her and stares. She completely ignores them and just says to me, “It’s happening. I called it.”

We all enter the training room, and Taylor waits until we’re settled in to say, “All right, today you’ll be working with your Half.” No one comes out right and groans or anything, but it’s obvious no one’s particularly pleased. Dessy and I exchange mournful looks.

“Desiree and Elizabeth, Chloe and Ryan, and Matt and Alex, you’re with me first. The rest of you go with Jamie.”

Once they’ve left, Taylor says to us, “We’re doing hand-to-hand combat today. Get on a matt.” This time, Dessy, Matt, and I feel free to groan. What’s the point in doing hand-to-hand combat against someone you know is going to beat you?

Taylor ignores us, puts some posters on the board with suggested moves, and says, “Go.”

“Hey, Chloe,” Ryan says.

I roll my eyes and try to elbow him in the chest, but he easily blocks it. “You know,” he continues, slowly bending back my arm, “even though we’re a Pair now, I still barely get to talk to you. How have you been?”

The words are good ones, kind, even, but he says them so mockingly that I want to spit. “Screw you,” I grunt, managing to get my arm out of his grip right before I would have cried out in pain. I try to take him by surprise and knee him, but he grabs my knee instead and pushes me down. I land on my back, all the air knocked out of me.

As I let out embarrassing gasping noises, Ryan laughs, and holds out a hand to help me up. I take it, feeling absolutely humiliated. “Don’t feel too bad,” he consoles me condescendingly. “I was born this perfect.”

I fake my way through moves, and look around to see how the others are doing. Dessy is pretty much in my situation. Anytime she tries something, Elizabeth sees it coming a mile ahead and easily blocks it.

Matt and Alex seem to be having a little more fun. Since they bonded over that book, they’ve been like best buddies. Obviously, Alex is much more capable than Matt, but he lets Matt advance a little before he knocks him down. Literally. Matt ends up on the ground, with Alex on top of him, grabbing his arm.

They’re laughing, and I swear I see Matt glance at Alex’s lips before Alex pulls him up. I look over at Dessy, who sure enough, has seen it too. She grins manically at me before Elizabeth grabs her wrist and pushes it behind her back—a friendly reminder to pay attention.

I struggle through the rest of training until it’s finally time for lunch. I immediately rush over to Dessy. “That was awful,” I groan.

“Tell me about it,” she mutters, rubbing her newly bruised arm. “Elizabeth has no soul.”

We sit down at the lunch table. “How was it for you?” Evan asks us.

“Ugh,” I reply.

“You?” Dessy asks.

Evan shrugs. “It was all right.”

“It wasn’t too bad for me, actually,” Natalie says. “Ashley actually seemed interested in learning.”

“And Alice is smart for someone without a blue jewel,” Tyrone adds.

“Yeah, well, Athletic training was torture,” I say. “I didn’t stand a chance.”

“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be,” Matt says.

“Yeah, cuz his Half is all sexy and pushing him to the ground and stuff,” Dessy whispers into my ear.

I giggle. “I honestly thought they were going to kiss right there,” I whisper back.

“Ah-HEM,” Matt clears his throat at us. We just giggle some more.

Sadly, lunch comes to an end, but not before I find out that there’s going to be a party for all the sophomores tonight, to celebrate surviving our first week of training. And it’s going to be a real party: no adult supervision. Ashley tells us all of this with a huge grin on her face. “Apparently, all the parties take place in the basement. And there’s gonna be alcohol, too. Although that’s not really a big deal, you know, ’cause our drinking age is fifteen. But still.”

It was discovered, along with everything else, that people with jewels have a far superior alcohol tolerance. When I turned fifteen, however, my mom said, “I don’t care if it’s legal. You are not drinking alcohol while you’re under this roof.” Well, I’m not under her roof anymore…

The idea of the party buzzing around in my head, I enter the Intelligence training room, and hope that it’s enough to get me through it all.

The stations are all brand-new, and I grin when I see them. This should be fun.

Ryan follows me over to one of the stations, and I start it up. I kind of regret my decision, because it’s obvious that this one is going to have a lot of math. Oh, well.

Despite all the math, I’m infinitely better at it than Ryan. I give him some of the easier problems to solve, but he even struggles with those. Eventually, I take over a problem he’d been on for the last five minutes and solve it in about five seconds, just so we can move on.

He stares at me in disbelief. “How the hell did you do that so fast?”

I smirk, allowing myself to feel better than him, probably for the first time in my life. “Don’t feel to bad,” I mock, trying to capture his condescending tone. “I was born this perfect.”

We move around to a few more stations, and Ryan is hopeless at all of them. I finally take pity on him and we do a sports-themed one. He does fairly well at this one, mainly because he knows all the useless football trivia I never bothered to learn.

When training is finished, everyone explodes into weekend frenzy. It is unanimously decided that the Intelligence girls will get ready in my dorm, and the Athletic girls will get ready in Dessy’s. Dessy stops at her dorm to get everything she needs, and we go back to the Girls’ Dorm.

Dessy has three dresses to choose from: a short-sleeved, sparkly, poofy black one with colored ruffles at the bottom, a long-sleeved red one, and a strapless purple one that stops far above mid-thigh.  
I like the black one best, and tell her, “It matches your hair and your personality.”

I don’t have too many dresses, and Dessy talks me into wearing a red T-shirt with a short black skirt. I’m actually quite pleased with the outcome.

At first, I don’t think Natalie’s going to the party, but at the last second, she changes into a dress and joins us.

When we get there, the party is in full swing. Dessy and I get drinks; she gets a margarita (fancy!), and I get a Coke. We sip our drinks and observe the party.

“Look, Alex is dancing with a girl,” I point out to Dessy.

I think that maybe this will make her change her mind about his sexuality, but instead she just says, “And look how jealous Matt is.”

I look at him, and it’s true that he’s staring at Alex and the mystery girl intently. Whether it’s a look of jealousy or not is, like many things with Matt, open to interpretation.

I’m having a good time with Dessy until Alice comes over. She’s obviously had a few drinks, and she seems happily tipsy. “Heeeey, Desiree,” she greets Dessy.

“Desiree?” I ask, raising my eyebrows as Dessy, who blushes accordingly.

“Desiree is too pretty of a name to be shortened,” Alice explains to me, blinking her big brown eyes. I never noticed before, but her eyes kind of twinkle in the light, like glitter eyeshadow. There are darker brown flecks among the light, and bits of green, too. She is gorgeous; I’ll give Dessy that.

“Come dance with me, Desiree,” Alice says suddenly, grabbing Dessy’s hands and dragging her to the dance floor. Dessy widens her eyes at me, and follows her.

I shake my head fondly. That girl is whipped.

After fifteen minutes, Dessy is still dancing with Alice, and I’m standing all by myself. I scan the room for the people I know. I see Dessy being grinded by Alice, looking as if she’d died and gone to heaven. I spot Alex, still dancing with the mystery girl, and Matt, still looking at them. Natalie is dancing next to Ashley, and they’re sandwiched by Jack and another guy. I’m a bit surprised by this; I expected Ashley, but Natalie looks completely in her element. Ryan is in a corner, sucking face with Elizabeth. Ick. Tyrone left already; I saw him go.

I’m looking for Evan when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and, what do you know, it’s him. “Hey,” I say.

“Wanna dance?” He asks.

This catches me off guard. I’ve never been asked to dance before. I consider declining his offer, but really, what have I got to lose? A cute boy who barely knows me is asking me to dance. I’m pretty sure he’s not going to publicly humiliate me. Not everyone is like Ryan, I remind myself. So I say yes.

I’ve always been a pretty good dancer, and Evan’s pretty good, too. Plus, we’ve had practice. After a little while, he asks me, shouting over the music, “Want a drink?”

“Sure!” I shout back. “But make sure it’s non-alcoholic!”

He gives me a thumbs up and comes back a minute later with two drinks in his hand, and hands one to me. I take a big gulp and quickly realize he must have misheard me. I’ve never had alcohol before, but this is definitely not soda.

I’m going to say something about it, but then I think, Ah, screw it, and down the rest of it.

“Easy, tiger,” Evan laughs.

I shrug, put the glass down on a table, and start dancing more freely.

“Hey, you want another one?” Evan offers.

Why not? “Sure,” I tell him. “That tasted really good.”

I end up having two more before I meet up with Dessy, and I guess I’m experiencing drunkenness.

“Hey, Dessy,” I say.

“Hey, Chloe,” she replies.

“You know Alice’s eyes are, like, glitter eyeshadow with all flecks and stuff?” That had made much more sense in my head.

“How many drinks have you had?” Dessy asks.

“Just three,” I answer.

“What was in them?”

I shrug. “I have no idea. Evan gave them to me.”

Dessy flutters her eyelashes. “Oooh, he’s trying to get you drunk? That’s so sweet.”

“We’re just friends,” I correct her.

“Uh-huh,” she smirks at me.

Alice saunters over. Or maybe she just kind of staggers in our general direction. Either way.

“Why aren’t you dancing?” she reprimands us. “Chloe, you were gifted with a great ass. Use it.”

I take this opportunity to observe my butt. It is nice, I guess. Boys seem to like it. On two separate occasions, I have had a boy say in passing, “Nice ass,” to me. I once ranted to Kelly about this for a good ten minutes.

“It’s never ‘Nice face’ or ‘Nice hair’ or even ‘Nice rack’,” I’d complained. “It’s always ‘Nice ass’. What about my ass is so nice?”

“Girl, at least they notice something about you,” she’d griped. “No one says crap to me.”

“Maybe that’s because they respect you as a woman,” I’d argued. “And I’m just a sex object to them. A sex object that gets no action. That’s a sad existence.”

“You’ll get plenty of action once you’re off to the Place,” she’d complained.

“Yeah, well, you’ll get way more action than me anyway.”

“Ready, set, ACTION!”

Then we’d performed a random improv scene that had us laughing so hard I’d cried, and everyone in the lunchroom had given us weird looks.

Kelly. Her name sends a pang through my chest. Our fight comes rushing back to me, and I try to shove it out of my mind. Surprisingly, it works. Maybe that’s a benefit of alcohol.

I dance with Evan some more until I nearly fall over and Dessy grabs my arms and says, “Okay, that’s it. I’m taking you back to your dorm.”

Out in the quiet hallway, away from all the music and people, I sober up considerably. “So, Desiree,” I tease her. “I saw you and Alice grinding up against each other. What’s goin’ on?”

“Nothing,” Dessy shakes her head. “She’s like that with everybody.”

I snort. “She’s not like that with me.”

Now Dessy laughs a little. “Well, what about you and Evan? You dance really well together.”

“I might like him a little,” I admit. “But it’s never gonna happen. Guys flirt with me and then they completely forget about me.”

“What guys?”

“Ryan,” I say, forgetting my promise to myself that I would never speak of this to anyone.

“Ryan?”

“It was seventh grade,” I explain. “He flirted with me a lot, and I was kind of into him. Okay, I was really into him. He was my first real crush. I’d had mini crushes before, but with Ryan, it was different. Every time I looked at him, my heart would beat faster, and I could never think of anything clever to say when he was around. Which was really unusual for me, cause I’m a blue Jewel and everything.

“It felt like my whole life revolved around him for a while. Then, in eighth grade, he completely ignored me. He never talked to me once. And then I kind of got over him. Except, well, my friend used to say that you can’t get over someone until you get under someone else. And I never got under someone else, so…”

Dessy stares at me. “Damn, Chloe, I had no idea. You seem like you’d be the type who’d be able to resist boys like that.”

I laugh a bit. “Yeah, well, he was the most popular boy in school. Everyone liked him. I guess I’m just as stupid as everyone else. More stupid, because I actually thought he’d be with me for a little while. One time, I swear he…never mind. I’ve said too much already.”

There’s a natural pause in the conversation, and then I say, “What about you, Dessy? Did you like anyone back at school?”

She grimaces. “I really shouldn’t be judging you, because I did the exact same thing. I fell for the most popular girl in school. She was about my height, but skinnier than me, and she had long blonde hair and these irresistible green eyes. I have a thing for eyes. You mentioned Alice’s eyes tonight, and I agree with you completely.” She pauses, then adds, “Your eyes are really pretty, too, Chloe. The color is almost…”

“Yellow.” I nod. “I’ve heard. Continue with your popular girl story.”

“We weren’t that close, but we were both in a lot of the same clubs, and we had a lot of the same interests, so we were thrown together a lot. Eventually, we started hanging out. Nothing ever happened. It was just me pining for her the whole time. I don’t want to say that she played with my heart, cause it was my fault. But she definitely broke it.”

“Well, aren’t we just a pair of idiots?” I say. Dessy laughs, and I smile.

“So, is she a non-Jewel?”

“No, she’s a red Jewel. She’s a year older than me, though, so when she left, I never heard from her again. I figured it was probably for the best.”

“Probably.”

We don’t talk again until we reach my Dorm. “Thanks for walking with me,” I say awkwardly.

“No problem.” She shrugs. “See you.” She starts to walk away.

“See you.” I watch her go, and have a warm feeling spread through my chest. I’m starting to feel like I have a best friend again.

I plop down in my bed without bothering to take off my makeup. Barely awake, I look at my phone screen. “1 missed call from Kelly” my phone informs me. I check for any voice mails or texts, but there’s nothing. I feel a stab of guilt as I turn my phone off and roll over. I’ll call her back later.

I promise.


	3. Chapter Three

“Wakey-wakey!”  
I open my eyes slowly, blinking into the sudden light. I squint in order to see the person who roused me from my slumber, and the first thing I see is red hair. I rub my eyes, and Ashley comes into focus, already dressed, and grinning with perfect teeth.  
“I swear, you two would sleep all day if I let you,” Ashley laughs, sitting down on my bed and swinging her legs.  
“That would’ve been kind of you,” Natalie mutters, turning over.  
“No! Don’t go back to sleep!” Ashley cries, rushing over to shake her.  
“Ashley, what is so important that you have to wake us at the ungodly hour of…” Here I pick up my phone and check the time. “10 o’clock?”  
“I was bored,” Ashley shrugs.  
“That is not a good enough reason,” Natalie grumbles. Even so, she gets off her bed and fumbles through her drawer.  
“I was thinking we could go to the mall or something.”  
“How would we get to the mall?” I ask, reluctantly pulling off my covers and heading over to my own drawer.  
“I’m pretty sure Tyrone has a car.” (Side note: The legal driving age for Jeweled people is 15. I’m pretty sure it’s based on convenience more than anything.)  
“Here?”  
“Yeah. He drove here because he lives close.”  
“And why would Tyrone want to drive us to the mall?” Natalie inquires from the bathroom where she’s started brushing her teeth.  
“Maybe because you’re going,” Ashley purrs. When she gets no response from Natalie, she sighs and continues, “Actually, I was planning on making it a bonding thing between all of us. Our Team, and their Team,” she clarifies.  
I wrinkle my nose. “With Ryan? And Elizabeth?”  
“Hey, Elizabeth’s not that bad!” Ashley protests. “Besides, Dessy would be there. You wouldn’t have to hang out with them.”  
I let out a long-suffering sigh. “I suppose. But as long as you get everyone to go.”  
Ashley’s face lights up. “Of course! Be ready in half an hour!”  
That’s how I end up stuffed in between Dessy and Matt in Tyrone’s car half an hour later. Thankfully, it’s a rather large car, but still. Actually, we ended up having to take two cars because of the fact that there are twelve of us. Jack also had a car, though, so everyone makes it to the mall.  
Once we arrive, we end up splitting into groups without even realizing it. Elizabeth and Ryan separate, holding hands and nuzzling noses and other disgusting couple-y things. Matt and Alex appear to be in best friend mode today, so they pull off from the rest of us. Ashley, Alice, Jack, and Evan go into a hat store or something, and Dessy, Natalie, Tyrone, and I go into a clothing store.  
Dessy and I browse while Tyrone and Natalie get into an intellectual discussion about mice, I think. “Look, there’s Matt and Alex!” Dessy points out to me.  
I look out the glass separating me and the rest of the mall, and sure enough, there they are. “They’re so adorable together,” Dessy gushes.  
“What do guys do in a mall, anyway?”  
“Well, probably—” Dessy starts, but then Alice rushes into the store.  
“Desiree!” she cries, grabbing Dessy’s arm. “Everyone else is being boring. Come help me try on clothes.”  
“Help you…” Dessy honestly looks lost, and I smile to myself.  
“Yes! I need someone’s opinion. To the dressing room, Desiree!” Alice drags Dessy to the dressing room, barely giving her a chance to shoot me a helpless look. I wave at her, and then she’s gone.  
It’s not so funny once I’m left all on my own. I kind of stand in the store, not sure what to do. I don’t feel like talking to Natalie and Tyrone about mice, and I’m not sure they’d let me, anyway. They’re kind of out of my smartness league. We’re all smart, but they’re serious smart. I’d feel like an imposter.  
I’m obviously not going to join Elizabeth and Ryan (I’d rather claw out my eyeballs), and I don’t think I’d be welcome with Matt and Alex, either. So that leaves Ashley, Jack, and Evan’s group.  
That’s actually not so bad. Ashley’s nice, I’m kind of friends with Evan, and I don’t really know Jack, but he can’t be that bad. Not as bad as Ryan, anyway. Oh, who am I kidding? No one is as bad as Ryan.  
So I go looking for them, and find them outside the hat shop I saw them enter when we first got here. “Chloe!” Ashley calls to me, making me feel a little more welcome. “Did Alice steal Dessy from you?”  
I give a kind of weak chuckle. (I don’t chuckle. Ever.) “Yeah, I guess so,” I say. (I swear, it’s popular girl syndrome. I turn into an idiot around them.)  
“Well, come join us,” Ashley says, gesturing me over.  
I do, but the sinking feeling in my stomach tells me that this might have been a bad idea. We walk in awkward silence for a little while until Ashley says, “Wow, I’m hungry! What time is it?”  
Evan checks his phone. “Almost noon.”  
“Well, I think we should get some lunch. I’m gonna text the others.”  
She does, and we end up in the food court. Out of habit, we split up into two tables: Athletic and Intelligence.  
As we eat, I ask Matt, “So, it seemed like you and Alex were getting along.”  
He shrugs, but I swear I see him blush for a fraction of a second. Then his face goes back to its default expression. “I guess he’s not that bad. He has a few redeeming qualities. What about you?”  
I blink. “What about me what?”  
“How’s Ryan?” Matt cocks an eyebrow at me.  
Hearing his name makes me automatically glance over at the Athletic table. Bad move. He’s feeding Elizabeth a French fry. She eats it adorably and giggles. Then they rub noses. It makes my stomach churns.  
“Oh, nothing has changed,” I answer Matt, still looking at Ryan. “He’s still an arrogant pig. No redeeming qualities.”  
“I wouldn’t say that. I mean, he is pretty hot.”  
We all stare at Natalie as if she’s grown another head. She stares back at us.  
“What? I’m not blind.”  
We hang out at the mall a little longer (I get Dessy back, and she tells me the exciting tales of helping Alice try on clothes), and when we get back to the Place, Ashley says, “We should do something after dinner.”  
“Like what?” Elizabeth asks. I’m surprised Ryan allowed her to speak at her own free will, seeing as it seems like he owns her mouth.  
“Like…” a wicked smile comes over Ashley’s normally innocent face. “Drinking games?”  
Almost everyone’s eyes light up, particularly Alice’s and Ryan’s.  
“Um…I don’t know,” Tyrone mutters. “My mom says I’m not supposed to drink while I’m here.”  
Alice rolls her eyes and turns to him. “And you do everything your mother tells you?”  
“Yes.”  
This takes Alice aback, and she blinks slowly at him.  
“You don’t have to drink,” Ashley tells him. “You can just watch.”  
Tyrone shrugs and says he supposes that’ll be fine.  
“So, after dinner, our dorm?” Ashley confirms.  
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, Ashley darling,” Alice drawls, kissing Ashley on the cheek, leaving a purple print.  
Ashley blinks and giggles. “See you there!” Ashley calls after them as they leave, her voice a few octaves higher than usual. I’m pretty sure she has popular girl syndrome, too. Which is funny because I consider her a popular girl.  
“See you,” Dessy says to me.  
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, Desiree darling,” I say in my fake Alice voice, leaning forward and kissing Dessy on the cheek.  
Dessy cackles and walks away.  
“Do I get a kiss, too?” a male voice asks.  
My heart stutters in my chest, and I turn around to face the voice. Evan. Of course.  
“No,” I blurt before my brain catches up to my mouth. “Kisses are for close friends and boyfriends only.”  
Evan raises and eyebrow and steps closer, and I look around and see that there’s no one left in the hallway except us. “And I’m not either of those?”  
Now my heart is jumping up and down. “Last time I checked, no.”  
“Is there—”  
“I forgot your last name!” I practically shout, panicking.  
He pauses. “Dorsey,” he says. “That’s my last name.”  
“Okay.”  
“I was going to say, is there any way I could change that?”  
“Change what?”  
“The fact that I’m not a close friend or a boyfriend.”  
My mouth opens a little, and I think of something clever to say. I’m a great speaker; this should be easy for me. But when I open my mouth, the words that come out are, “I need a tampon.” Then I run into the Dorm and close the door behind me.  
“What was that?” Ashley asks. She’s the only one still in the common room.  
“I think Evan just asked me out,” I blurt. Again, the mouth racing the brain thing. For someone who supposedly has a pretty smart brain, my mouth sure is a hell of a lot faster.  
Ashley’s eyebrows shoot up, and she grins. “What did you say?”  
“I said I needed a tampon.”  
Her face drops. “What?”  
“I’m not even on my period!” I wail, slamming my head against the door.  
Matt chooses that moment to come out of his dorm, and when I see him, his face is twisted in horror. I open my mouth to explain, but he holds up a hand to stop me. “I don’t want to know,” he says, and slowly backs back into his dorm.  
“Oops,” I giggle.  
“Well, if he really likes you,” Ashley says, “he won’t care that you said you needed a tampon even though you’re not on your period.”  
We look at each other and burst out laughing. This makes up my mind completely. Popular girl or not, I definitely like Ashley.

After dinner, we all gather in our Dorm to play some drinking games. I’m not sure exactly where we got the booze, but it’s there.  
“All right, here’s what’s going down,” Ashley announces as Jack pours us all shot glasses. “We’re playing ‘Never Have I Ever’ first. The rules are pretty simple. We go around in a circle, and you say something you haven’t done. Everyone else has to drink if they have done it.”  
“And try to make it juicy, please,” Alice adds. “None of this ‘Never have I ever peed my pants’ crap.”  
“And then can we play Truth or Dare?” Elizabeth asks.  
“Yup,” Ashley answers. “You drink when you don’t want to do the Dare or answer the Truth. Now, let’s begin!”  
It’s Jack’s turn first for the Never Have I Ever. “Uh, never have I ever…kissed someone of the same gender.”  
Way more people drink than I expected. It’s me, Dessy, Alice, Matt, and Ryan. I’m definitely not proud of myself for the images that idea gives me. (Full disclosure: it was first grade. Kelly and I were preparing for the real world. No big deal.)  
Ashley’s turn next. “Never have I ever had sex.”  
Ryan, Alex, Alice, Elizabeth, and Jack all drink. No surprises there.  
“Never have I ever done drugs,” comes from Natalie. Only Ryan, Alice, and Dessy drink to this one.  
I give Dessy a look, and she shrugs. “Mar-i-ju-ana,” Dessy says. “6th grade.”  
We go around a few times, and I have to drink very little, considering the nature of the questions. At my turn, I say, “Never have I ever told someone I loved them when I didn’t.”  
“Do your parents count?” Alice asks.  
“Yes!” Natalie laughs, taking a drink.  
Alice grins and downs her shot. “I would have had to drink anyway. Sorry, Cody Herman. I just really liked your money.”  
Everyone laughs, and I think it’s amazing that everyone’s getting along. I have to give Ashley credit for this one.  
Then we switch to Truth or Dare. This should be fun.  
Alice asks me truth or dare first, which I find surprising, since up until this point I’ve been fairly certain she didn’t know I existed.  
“Uh, dare.”  
Her eyes glint. Uh-oh. She obviously wanted me to choose dare.  
“Sit on Ryan’s lap,” she grins, “for the next three turns.”  
Elizabeth turns to her sharply, apparently not expecting that. Alice just looks at me patiently.  
I slowly rise to my knees and shuffle over to Ryan. I’m considering the best way to maneuver my way into his lap when he scoops me up and plants me there effortlessly. This involves him putting his arms around me, and all the attraction from 7th grade comes at me all at once, so that I literally find it hard to breathe for a second.  
You like Evan now, Chloe, I tell myself. Remember him? You might actually have a chance with him. But it’s so unbelievably difficult to focus on Evan when I’m sitting in Ryan’s lap. I hate him. But I’d also sleep with him right now if he would have me. This thought makes me hate myself.  
It’s Elizabeth’s turn, and she turns to Alice without a pause. There’s venom in her voice when she asks, “Truth or dare?” She’s obviously pissed that her best friend dared some random blue Jewel to sit in her boyfriend’s lap.  
Alice doesn’t even flinch. “Dare,” she replies, looking right into Elizabeth’s brown eyes.  
Elizabeth smiles. “Kiss Dessy,” she dares.  
I can hear Dessy’s breath hitch. Alice shrugs. “All right, Desiree,” she says, slinking over to Dessy. “Looks like I’ve been dared to lock lips with you.” She leans down and whispers into her ear, so softly that only Dessy and I can hear, “Let’s give them a show, huh?”  
Alice doesn’t disappoint. The kiss is long and sensuous. Everyone in the room (except for Matt and Elizabeth) are looking at them with different levels of lust and longing. The boys are full on gaping; the girls are just kind of staring with wide eyes. I can only imagine that the look on Ryan’s face mirrors the looks on Evan’s.  
When Alice pulls away, Dessy gives her a lovesick smile. We’re all kind of in a daze until Jack says, “Um, I think it’s my turn. Elizabeth, truth or dare?”  
“Truth,” Elizabeth growls.  
“How old were you the first time you had sex?”  
This takes Elizabeth off guard, and she blushes. “I was almost fifteen.”  
No one really has anything to say to that, so Ashley asks Jack truth or dare. When he answers truth, Ashley asks, “Do you like Natalie?”  
Jack drinks, and everyone giggles and coos at Natalie.  
“It’s been three turns,” Elizabeth points out.  
“So?” I ask, not getting it.  
She glares at me. “So get off my boyfriend’s lap.”  
I remember the conditions of the dare and get off Ryan’s lap, oddly disappointed that I had to. As much as I had loathed the idea at first, I had gotten pretty comfortable there. My body misses his warmth the second I get off, and I cuddle up against Dessy for compensation. She pats my head.  
“Natalie, truth or dare?” I ask, feeling bold.  
“Dare,” she responds. I guess she’s feeling bold too.  
“Give Jack a lap dance.”  
Everyone crows, and Natalie raises her eyebrows. I expect her to drink out of it, but instead she walks over to Jack and shakes her ass in his face. She continues, getting into it, and she’s actually pretty good. I never would have expected it from her, but she’s been doing a lot of unexpected things lately.  
“Yo, Ryan,” Natalie calls from her new spot by Jack’s side. “Truth or dare?”  
“Truth.”  
Natalie smiles in a sort of drunken way. “How many girls have you slept with?”  
Elizabeth took my place in Ryan’s lap after I’d left, and now she shoots him a warning look. He grins and takes a shot. “Good call, babe,” Elizabeth praises him. He kisses her head and whispers something in her ear, which she laughs at. I feel sick.  
“Ashley, truth or dare?” This comes from Alex.  
“Dare,” Ashley says bravely.  
Alex smiles wickedly. “Take off you shirt. For the rest of the game.”  
Ashley turns bright red. I’m almost positive she’s going to drink, but instead she slowly reaches down to the bottom of her shirt and pulls it off. The boys whistle. A few of the girls clap.  
Ryan gives Alex a truth that I’m not paying attention to, so I have no idea why everyone starts freaking out. Alex takes a drink instead of answering it, and I don’t bother asking what it was.  
The next truth or dare goes to Matt, from Dessy. He opts for dare. Big mistake. Dessy cackles for a full minute before getting out, “Kiss Alex.”  
Alex’s face turns red (well, redder than before), but Matt just raises his eyebrow. “I’ll do it if you’re not too much of a pussy,” Matt says matter-of-factly.  
Now Alex’s face is defensive. “Whatever.”  
So Matt kisses Alex. It’s a real kiss, too, not a peck. I’m pretty sure my jaw is hanging open. I completely understand how the guys felt when Alice kissed Dessy now. One word: Hot.  
I think the most surprising thing is that Matt is leading it, just like Alice had. When he pulls away, Alex is the one left dazed and flushed.  
Evan breaks the silence by asking Dessy truth or dare.  
“Truth, please,” she responds.  
“Who was the first girl you had a crush on?”  
“Her name was Sally. We were in the same kindergarten class. I honestly legitimately pulled her pigtails, so help me God.”  
This eases the tension in the room a bit, and everyone laughs at Dessy’s story. It’s Matt’s turn to truth or dare someone, and then we have to go to bed.  
“Truth or dare, Evan?”  
“Dare.”  
“Kiss Chloe.”  
I don’t really register that that’s my name until I see Evan moving towards me. I can’t do this! I don’t know how to kiss!  
But I better learn fast, because Evan’s pressing his lips to mine. Luckily, I’ve always been a fast learner. Blue Jewel privilege.  
We kiss for a little while, and then he pulls away from me, smiling. I smile back. I guess my tampon outburst didn’t freak him out as much as I thought it had.  
After that, it’s time for everyone to leave. I say goodbye to Dessy, and soon it’s just Evan and me in the hallway. Can you say déjà vu?  
“So…about what we were saying earlier,” he starts. “Kisses are only for close friends and boyfriends? What does that make me?”  
“What would you like to be?” I say, trying to keep my breathing under control.  
“What do you think?” He raises and eyebrow and takes a step forward.  
“I don’t like playing games,” I blurt out. “The last time I did, I misinterpreted everything and I got hurt. I don’t want to get hurt again. So just say what you want to say.” I didn’t mean for it to come out so harshly, but it needed to be said. I’m done with games.  
Evan loses the attitude and just looks into my eyes. “Do you want to go out with me?”  
“Yes.” That was an easy question. I think I gave the right answer.  
“So, you’re a straightforward kind of girl, huh?”  
“I guess so.”  
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” And then he’s gone.  
I smile and walk back into my Dorm…and right into Ryan.  
He swings me around so that my back is against his chest. I struggle a little but he holds me there tightly. “What—”  
“It was five,” he whispers in my ear. His breath smells like alcohol. He’s drunk, obviously.  
“Five what?”  
“Five girls. I’ve had sex with five girls.”  
“Congratulations?” I stammer, finally breaking free of his grip. Before I can get anywhere, though, he grabs my wrist.  
“I love your eyes, Chloe,” he slurs.  
“You’re drunk,” I say, my heart pounding. What did I ever do to deserve him as my Half?  
“So?”  
“So go to bed,” I snap, yanking my wrist away and storming into the Girls’ Dorm.  
“I love you, Chloe,” he calls after me, and I freeze for a second. He sounds exactly like he did in 7th grade. Back when I believed him. I close the door behind me and plop down on my bed. I check my phone. 3 missed messages from Kelly.  
I look at them.  
Kelly: I’m sorry.  
Kelly: I knew u were going 2 leave. I just was angry.  
Kelly: friends?  
I grin at my phone and text back the word “friends”. Then I roll over and fall asleep almost instantly.

It’s nearly noon when I wake up the next morning. Natalie is sitting in her bed, reading. “Hey, Chloe,” she greets me. “Happy Sunday. How’s your head?”  
“Awful,” I groan. “And I didn’t even drink that much!”  
“Yeah, well, rest up,” Natalie says. “Tomorrow starts our first full week of training. You’re gonna need every ounce of energy you have.”  
“I know,” I reply glumly.  
“Hey, what happened last night? I thought I heard people talking.”  
“Uh…” Ryan’s words and actions from last night come flooding back into my head. I can’t tell anyone that. “Evan asked me out.”  
“Seriously?!”  
I jerk my head up in surprise and see Ashley at the door. Of course.  
“Oh my god! What did you say?”  
“I said yes,” I answer.  
Ashley squeals, which is not so great for my headache. “I’m so happy for you! I knew you two would make a cute couple!”  
“Well, you called it.”  
“Yes, I did.” Ashley pauses. “Well, I’m going to hang out with Elizabeth and Alice. Do either of you want to come, or…”  
Natalie lets out a “Hah!” just as I’m politely declining her offer.  
“Oh, well. See you guys later!” And then Ashley’s gone.  
I pull out my phone and hesitate a fraction of a second before calling Kelly. She picks up immediately. “Hello?”  
“Hello? Kelly?”  
“Chloe?”  
“Hi!”  
“Hi.”  
We do this every time we talk on the phone. It’s very comforting.  
“So, I guess you got my texts,” Kelly says. “I really am sorry. I didn’t mean to be such a bitch. I just didn’t want you to leave.”  
“It’s fine,” I say. “I was kind of a bitch too. But I have so much to tell you.”  
I can hear her smile through the phone. “Ooh, what’s happened?”  
“What hasn’t happened? I left you a message that said who my Half was, right?”  
“Yes, and I avoided it for a long time, but I just listened to it. Is it seriously Ryan? Or were you just trying to get my attention?”  
“I wish,” I snort. “No, it’s really Ryan. And he’s already got a blonde girlfriend.”  
“Wow, that was fast.”  
“Well, just because we’re fancy agents-in-training now doesn’t change his personality. He’s still Ryan.”  
“I guess so. So, have you made any new friends?”  
I tell her about Dessy, and, to a lesser extent, Ashley, Natalie, and Matt. I save Evan for last.  
“We played Truth or Dare last night,” I start. “And…I kind of got my first kiss? Real kiss, I mean. And then…that guy asked me out.”  
“OH MY GOD!” Kelly screams. “You have a boyfriend?!”  
“Yup,” I giggle nervously.  
“Good for you, you lucky bitch! Is he a blue Jewel? Is he cute? What’s his name?”  
“Whoa, whoa, slow down.” I tell her everything, down to every last detail, even me sitting in Ryan’s lap. I do, however, leave out what happened right after Evan asked me out. That still seems so surreal that I’m starting to think I hallucinated the whole thing. I think, in a way, that’s more believable than what actually happened.  
“So what about you?” I ask. “How are you holding up without me?”  
“I’m fine. There’s this group, they’ve kind of adopted me. Two dudes and a chick. They’re pretty cool.”  
“Tell me about them.”  
She does. She tells me about Andrew Perkins, whose hair is so light blonde it’s practically white, and who refuses to go out into the sun. She tells me about Melanie Nash, who wears heavy black eyeliner and only listens to music by her favorite band, no exceptions. She tells me about Nathan Blank, who’s the tiniest bit overweight and has five sisters.  
“They sound interesting,” I say. “A bit weird…okay, very weird, but definitely entertaining.”  
“They definitely are,” Kelly agrees.  
“Is there any potential boyfriend coming out of that group?”  
I can practically hear her wrinkle her nose. “Not very likely. Andrew only tolerates me, and Nathan’s a sweetheart, but he’s not exactly my type. Melanie’s the one who likes me the most, out of everybody, I think.”  
“Well, I’m glad things are going well for you,” I say. And I mean it, too. Even though I’d left on a bad not, I had been worrying about Kelly. How she was doing. We’d never really needed anyone but each other, and I had been worried that she’d be completely alone when I left. Her friends may sound strange, but are they really any stranger than Dessy, or Natalie, or Matt? I suppose it’s all a matter of perception.  
“And I’m glad things are going even better for you,” she replies. “I’d really like to meet Dessy sometime, she sounds really cool.”  
“Yeah, I’m sure she’d love to meet you too. You should come to the visiting thing in November. Then I’d get to introduce you to everybody.”  
“I totally forgot about that! I’ll definitely try to make it.”  
“All right, well…I’ll call you soon, okay?”  
“And I’ll see you in November!”  
I hang up, and smile. I’m so relieved that Kelly and I are friends again that I put my head into my pillow and squeal. Then I jump up and do an obligatory happy dance. I’m in the middle of jumping up and down and shaking my head around when Matt enters the room.  
I stop mid-bounce to throw my pillow at him. “Matt!” I scold him. “Don’t you knock? I could have been changing!”  
Matt just rolls his eyes. “I was sent to inform you that everyone is gathering for lunch in the Cafeteria now. Ashley is insisting that you come.” He raises an eyebrow. “Evan will be there.”  
I feel myself blush, and grab Natalie’s pillow to throw at him. “Tell Ashley,” I say pointedly, “that I’ll be down in five minutes.”  
“All right.” He leaves me to change in peace.  
I put on my favorite purple shirt, the one that hugs my curves (unnoticeable as they are) in all the right places. I add black leggings and black boots to complete the looks. I inspect myself in the mirror. I usually don’t wear leggings without a skirt. The fact that I have thighs has prevented it. But today, I’m feeling confident enough to go out like this.  
The second I enter the Common Room, I notice that it’s empty except for one other person: Ryan. My heart speeds up, out of habit more than anything. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.  
He doesn’t look up from his place on the couch, and as far as I know, he doesn’t even know I’m in the room at all. I wait for a moment, not sure why. I guess I’m waiting for him to mention last night. But I should know that he’s not going to. He was probably too drunk last night to remember what he said, anyway. Even if he did remember, it’s not like he’d ever admit it. He’s got a perfect blonde girlfriend. He wouldn’t risk that on my account.  
This makes up my mind, and I stride confidently to the door to leave. Right before I open it, though, I hear Ryan say, “Five.”  
My blood freezes. That means he remembers last night, and he’s acknowledging that it happened. I take a deep breath, walk out the door, and don’t look back.


	4. Chapter Four

The second I get down to lunch, Evan’s face lights up. This makes me feel a lot better. “Hey, Chloe,” he greets me. “How’s my straightforward girlfriend?”  
I blink. He’s already calling me his girlfriend? That was fast. “She’s good,” I answer, sitting down next to him, Dessy on my other side. “How’s my…” Crap. What adjective do I describe him with? Playful? That sounds dirty, and I feel dirty enough at the moment. “…Fun-loving boyfriend?” That sounded lame. Like, really lame.  
But he just laughs. “He’s good.”  
Dessy whispers in my ear, “Well, aren’t you two just sickeningly sweet?”  
I giggle and slap her arm. “Shut up,” I whisper back. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”  
At that moment, Ryan comes down and sits next to Elizabeth, completely ignoring me. Which I’m fine with. Because now I have an actual boyfriend who cares about me, at least a little bit.  
We eat, and make conversation. When we’re done, Evan asks me, “Want to go for a walk?”  
I feel a little nervous as I say, “Sure.” I get up and follow him out of the Cafeteria, looking back to see Dessy giving me a thumbs-up.  
Evan and I start walking along a path that winds around the Place. We fall into a rhythm, but just as I’m getting comfortable, Evan reached for my hand. I start and yank my hand away. He holds his own hands over his head in surrender.  
“I’m sorry,” I apologize. “I guess I’m just not really a hand-holding kind of person. I would always hate it when people would walk around the halls holding hands. It was probably because I was single and bitter, but…” I trail off. “Sorry.”  
“It’s okay, you don’t want to hold hands. No big deal.”  
“But, see, I do want to hold your hand, I think.” Now I’m just digging myself into a hole. “But my hand’s probably sweaty now, and…ugh.” I growl in frustration. “I don’t know how to do this, okay? I’ve never been anyone’s girlfriend. I don’t know how to act, or what to say, or how to stop making a complete fool of myself. And I actually like you, and I’m totally screwing this whole thing up, aren’t I?”  
Evan stops walking and faces me. “No, Chloe,” he says. “I don’t care if you want to hold hands or not. You’re not obligated to do anything. We’ll take it slow. I won’t do anything you’re not comfortable with.”  
I laugh. “What movie did you get that out of?”  
He thinks for a minute. “I can’t remember,” he answers. “I’m pretty sure it was pretty cheesy, though.”  
“Well, cheesy isn’t always a bad thing,” I assure him. And just like that, I grab his hand. I never would’ve thought I’d be a hand-holding person, but there’s something reassuring about it. It’s a way to be closer to him, I think.  
We weave our way around the Place, holding hands and talking about random things. I find myself telling him my whole life story, only stopping once, when I realize he hasn’t said a word in five minutes. “Shit, I’m talking too much, aren’t I?”  
Evan smiles. “I’m listening to everything you’re saying, don’t worry. Plus, I love the sound of your voice. So it’s purely selfish of me to let you keep talking.”  
And that makes it all okay.  
“You know, at school, I was actually considered quite promiscuous,” I’m saying, swinging our clasped hands back and forth.  
“No way,” Evan says, looking really surprised. “Not you, Miss I’ve-Never-Had-A-Boyfriend.”  
“Yup, me. I was a positively vulgar child. I talked about sex all the time.” It’s so weird to be admitting it, but it’s true. “Plus, I wore super short skirts. I have no idea, since I hate my legs.”  
“I’d like to see you in a short skirt sometime,” Evan says with a devilish glint in his green eyes.  
“And I’d like to see you with your shirt off,” I respond, before realizing what I’m saying. I blush. “Um. I didn’t mean to say that. My mouth does this thing where it doesn’t wait for my brain. That was the kind of stuff I said at school. See? Promiscuous.”  
“At least you’re honest,” Evan says. “I had a girlfriend once, and she never told anything to me straight. She would leave all these vague clues and get really angry when I didn’t get it.”  
“Hmmm. The master of playing games.”  
“Exactly. So you can see why I love how straightforward you are. You don’t play games.”  
“Tell me more about this game-player girlfriend of yours. She sounds fascinating.”  
Evan gives me a look, and I widen my eyes. “What? I don’t have any experience with relationships. I want to at least know what to avoid doing.”  
“All right, well, her name was Penelope. She was…pretty popular, I guess. She turned out to be a complete bitch, though.”  
“But let me guess: You went out with her ’cause she had a rockin’ bod, right?”  
“No,” Evan denies. I give him a look. “Well, not completely,” he admits. “She was really pretty, but she also seemed genuinely sweet at first. She would give me a chocolate every day at lunch, and the first time I went to her house, we spent the whole time playing with her little brother.”  
“So, she bribed you with babies, I see?” I rub my chin. “Damn. I’m an only child. And I hate kids.”  
Evan laughs. “Anyway, it was great, for like a week. Then she started playing the games. She got really upset when I forgot her birthday, even though she’d never told me when it was.”  
“October 19th,” I tell him. “My birthday. Mark your calendar.”  
“Will do,” Evan promises. “Anyway, it was stuff like that. And she’d get crazy jealous. Soon, I literally couldn’t talk to any other girl without her throwing a fit. Obviously, I couldn’t keep going like this. But every time I went to break up with her, she’d pull some tragedy. Like, her parents were fighting, or she was feeling really insecure, and stuff like that. Every argument we had ended with her sobbing on my shoulder and saying she was so glad that we were still together.”  
“Manipulation,” I comment. “She sounds like a pro.”  
“She was,” Evan agrees. “Anyway, I eventually broke up with her, for real. That’s when she really went crazy. She started spreading all these rumors about me, like I’d been cheating on her and the reason I broke up with her was because she wouldn’t have sex with me.”  
“Oh my god,” I say. “She really sounds awful. I feel real pain for you right now.”  
He shrugs. “It wasn’t that big of a deal,” he says. “We broke up right before I had to come here, and she’s not Jeweled, so I escaped.”  
“And then you met me,” I say.  
“And then I met you,” he confirms. He stops walking and looks at me.  
“What?” I ask nervously. What could I possibly have done wrong in the last two seconds?  
“You turn fifteen on October 19th?”  
“Oi!” I exclaim indignantly. “Sixteen.”  
“You’re older than me,” he says as we continue walking.  
“You better believe it. I’m a freakin’ cougar.”  
“Wait, did you just say ‘oi’?”  
I shrug. “I watch a lot of British TV.”  
When we get back inside, I understand how people feel when they say they’re “glowing”. I can tell that I’m going to enjoy being Evan’s girlfriend, no matter how long it lasts.  
Dessy is in the common room of my Dorm, chatting with Matt, when I walk in. They stop their conversation when they see me, and pat the space in between them on the couch. I sit down. They look at me expectantly.  
“Well?” Dessy finally asks.  
“Well what?”  
“How did it go?” Matt prods. I look at him blankly. “Your walk with Evan.”  
“Oh.” Duh. “Um, it went well. Why do you care?”  
Matt and Dessy roll their eyes in perfect synchronization. Even though all the stereotypes say gay guys and lesbians don’t have anything in common, I think Dessy and Matt have too much in common.  
“Um, duh! We’re both lonely and single and living our lives vicariously through you,” Dessy explains impatiently.  
“Excuse me, but I believe both of you got some action during Truth or Dare.” I’m not giving them any details without a fight.  
“Yes, but neither of us got asked out afterward,” Matt says.  
“So, spill,” Dessy finishes, blinking her hazel eyes.  
“Fine,” I sigh, and tell them everything.  
Dessy’s squealing by the end, and Matt’s smirking, and I’m not sure which is worse.  
“You guys are so cute!” Dessy squeals just as Ashley’s walking in.  
“Who’s so cute?” she inquires.  
“Chloe and Evan,” Matt tells her calmly.  
“Yes! What happened?”  
So then I have to relay the whole thing over again. It’s exhausting. (But I love it.)  
“All right, well, I haven’t read in forever,” I say, rising from the couch. “And I was really enjoying my book before I had to adjust to having a social life. So I’m going to read now.”  
“You have fun,” Dessy says, waving at me. She starts talking to Matt again, and I’m a little surprised when Ashley joins their conversation. I’ve got to stop grouping her with the popular girls, I think.  
Before I sit down to read, I type up my whole romantic walking experience in an email and send it to Kelly. She responds immediately with: “You are literally the luckiest and I hate you.”  
I email back, “What, no boyfriend yet?” and click send.  
She sends back, “Actually, I think Andrew might have been hitting on me yesterday. But I’m not sure. I hate games!!!”  
I grin and reply, “Just tell him you’re Miss Straightforward and you won’t take any games. Worked for me.”  
Satisfied with that, I flop down on my bed and open my book.

The weeks fly by. Evan gets me a short skirt and bunny slippers for my birthday, saying that it would be really awesome to see me wear them both at once. I don’t say it at the time, because I think it would sound dorky, but I feel like his gift totally sums up my personality. A chick that dresses up in short skirts, but wants the comfort of bunny slippers. My heart soars when I open the gift, and I hug-attack Evan.  
Nothing else weird happens with Ryan, which is a relief. He goes back to ignoring me, except during training, where he makes me miserable. Things are as they should be.  
Soon, it’s almost Halloween, and everyone’s excited. There’s going to be a Halloween party, costumes and everything, in the basement the night of. Ashley decides that us girls should go to the mall to get costumes right before. We borrow Jack’s car and head off to the mall.  
I’m scared that it’s going to be super awkward, but Elizabeth seems to have warmed up to me now that she doesn’t think I’m coveting her boyfriend. We have a good time, trying on Halloween costumes and getting opinions. Alice and Elizabeth decide to go as sexy French maids. “I know it seems unoriginal, but it a classic,” Alice explains, defending her choice. “Besides, I haven’t actually ever been one yet.”  
Dessy finds a Queen of Hearts costume that she falls in love with, and Ashley goes as a baseball player. When asked why, she just shrugs. “I’m not sure. I’m just in a baseball mood.”  
Natalie decides on a showgirl outfit, and the gold makes her look radiant.  
I’m not sure what to get at first, but then I spot a Gothic princess costume that looks gorgeous. I try it on, and I feel beautiful. Everyone else agrees, too. “Evan’s gonna love you in that,” Dessy comments.  
I shrug. “I’m not getting this for him. It’s all for me, baby.”  
We leave the mall, chatting about the Halloween party and how much fun it’s going to be. Then a song comes on that we all know and we sing along. Elizabeth compliments me on my voice, and I feel honored to the point that it’s ridiculous. Elizabeth’s opinion shouldn’t matter. But it really, really does and I’m so glad that likes my voice.  
The next night is the night of the Halloween party. Dessy comes to my Dorm and we get ready together. She looks adorable, and the tiniest bit sexy, in her Queen of Hearts costume, and I feel sleek and sophisticated.  
Evan picks me up at the door, and his eyes widen when he sees me. “Wow,” he breathes. “You look…”  
“Stunning? Breathtaking? Absolutely gorgeous?”  
He whistles. “That about sums it up.”  
I blush, and he extends his hand. “Shall we?”  
I take it. “We shall.” We walk hand in hand down to the basement.  
Once we’re down there, I actually don’t see Evan much. I get whisked away by Dessy, and dance a few songs with her and the girls. I’ve started calling them “the girls” at this point, and everyone’s included. Even Elizabeth.  
I have a few drinks, and halfway into the party, I’m feeling pretty wild. My hair is flying everywhere, and I can feel sweat dripping down my face. At some point, I can feel a male body behind me. I assume it’s Evan, even though my rational mind is telling me that Evan is not that tall or muscular. But I’m too busy dancing to listen to my rational mind.  
I turn around after dancing to a few songs with this person, and feel a jolt when I see that it’s Ryan. “Uh…”  
He just smirks at me and dances away. I sort of back away, and run into Evan.  
“What was that?” Evan’s voice is cool, with a hard edge to it, and it makes my blood run cold. He’s angry. At me. He’s never been angry at me before.  
“I was…dancing,” I say lamely. “I didn’t know it was Ryan; I thought it was you!”  
“You couldn’t have bothered checking?” he growls. “I mean, seriously, you ignore me the whole night, and then the next time I see you, you’re grinding against another guy?”  
“I wasn’t grinding!” I protest. “And I wasn’t ignoring you, either! What is your problem?” My head is suddenly spinning, and all the lights seem too bright. My stomach churns.  
“Whatever,” Evan rolls his eyes. “Just find me when you’re done being a slut, all right?”  
My heart lurches. A slut? Seriously? In the months that we’ve been a couple, we haven’t gone farther than kissing even once. And now I’m a slut?  
I want to scream at him until his ears fall off, but he’s already storming away. He’s never reacted to anything like that, ever. My head pounds, and I bring a hand up to rub my temple. I blink hard.  
“Chloe!” Dessy rushes over, with Alice hanging off of her arm. “What happened? Are you okay? You look kind of sick.”  
“I’m fine,” I mumble, still blinking. Nothing seems real. And then I look at Alice, and an intense anger that isn’t really her fault fills me. “Would you stop stringing her along?” I snap, and Alice’s eyes widen in surprise. “Seriously. You’re never going to give her what she wants; you’re just going to break her heart.”  
Alice just looks at me from under her heavy eyelids. “What are you talking about?” she slurs.  
Dessy, on the other hand, is livid. “What are you doing?” she hisses, and reaches her hand up and slaps me. I don’t even feel it. “What is wrong with you, Chloe?”  
What is wrong with me? My boyfriend hates me, my new best friend hates me, my old best friend will probably hate me soon. What am I doing wrong?  
My eyes fill with tears, and I know I have to get out of there. I push past Dessy and Alice, and head for the exit. I’ve just entered the hallway when I hear someone say, “Chloe.”  
I turn around. Ryan. All the anger at everything that just happened is immediately directed at him. It’s his fault Evan is mad at me. If he hadn’t come up to dance with me, Evan and I wouldn’t be fighting. If I dig a little deeper, I can justify that the thing with Dessy is his fault too. After all, I was only angry with Alice for stringing Dessy along because Ryan had done the same thing to me.  
I need to hurt him, I think as I march towards him. He needs to pay for what he’s done. I don’t care how much stronger than me he is; I’m going to punch him, and he’s going to feel it.  
Which is why I think I’m just as surprised as he is when I end up kissing him.  
It’s nothing like my kisses with Evan. Those kisses are sweet and affectionate, full of love and trust and happiness. Nice, relationship-y stuff. This kiss is completely different. It’s fueled by anger and hate, and I think I actually bite Ryan’s lip at one point.  
It’s amazing.  
When I pull away, I realize what a mistake I’ve made. Ryan is looking at me with a combination of surprise and hunger, and my pulse races. “Shit,” I mutter, and run all the way back to my Dorm.  
I barely make it to the Girls’ Dorm in time to throw up everything I’d eaten that day. I stare at the toilet bowl with vomit dripping down my face, and start to cry. Everything is ruined. I was having such a good time, and now I’ve screwed it all up. My boyfriend is now most likely my ex-boyfriend, and Dessy probably will never speak to me again. On top of all that, I kissed Ryan, and now Elizabeth will probably slip some poison into my food. Which, considering everything, will probably be a kind way to get rid of me.  
I crawl into my bed and lie there, feeling miserable. It’s amazing that I manage to fall asleep.

The next day, I really don’t want to get up, but I do. I walk like a zombie down to the Cafeteria for breakfast at 11:00AM. I avoid eye contact with anyone I even might know, and trudge back to my Dorm.  
I’m sitting on my bed, reading a book, when I get a text. It’s from Evan, and it says, “Can we talk?”  
Well. At least he didn’t say, “We need to talk.” That would have been too obvious. Still, it’s pretty clear he’s going to break up with me. The first relationship I ever had, down the toilet. I wonder, for a brief moment, whether I’ll ever get another one.  
I just text back “Sure.”  
Evan texts me instructions to meet him outside, on the bench by the baseball field. That’s our favorite bench, because it gets the most shade. Now I’ll probably never sit there again.  
Still. There’s no point in delaying the inevitable, I suppose. I put on something decent and walk to the bench. He’s already there, tapping something out with his fingernail, one of his many adorable nervous habits. Despite everything that’s happening, I feel a sense of pride for noticing these things about him.  
I sit down on the bench. “All right. Get it over with.”  
“I’m sorry.” The first words out of Evan’s mouth are not what I’m expecting.  
I blink. “What?”  
“I’m sorry. I was a complete jerk last night, and that’s totally not me. You know that. I guess I’d had too much to drink and I was feeling a little…possessive.”  
So, Evan’s a jealous, possessive, angry drunk. I think of Ryan, when he was drunk that night of Truth or Dare. The way he’s grabbed me and whispered things into my ear. Seductive and dominating.  
I push the thought away.  
“Yeah, you were kind of being a Penelope,” I say shakily.  
He laughs at the mention of his ex-girlfriend. “Yeah, I guess I was,” he agrees. “So, uh…do you forgive me?”  
“Do I forgive you?” I ask incredulously. Evan recoils a little. “Are you freaking kidding me? Jesus Christ! I thought you were gonna break up with me!”  
“So…” Evan looks so confused; I have to burst out laughing.  
“So, obviously I forgive you, you idiot!” I gasp out between laughs. I feel something wet on cheek and realize that I’m crying. I must look like an idiot. If he wasn’t going to break up with me before, he’s probably rethinking that now.  
But he just looks relieved, and pulls me in for a hug. I continue crying on his shoulder, so happy that I could fly.  
We part on good terms, and I want to keep the forgiveness going, so I walk over to Dessy’s Dorm. She answers the door, and I impulsively hug her. She stiffens and I whisper, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that stuff to Alice.”  
She relaxes a little. “I’m sorry, too,” she says. “I overreacted. I shouldn’t have slapped you.”  
“Yeah, well, sometimes I deserve it.” I pull away and look at her. “So…friends?”  
“I suppose.” Dessy gives a little smile, and my heart soars. “So, what happened with Evan?”  
And just like that, everything’s okay again. Dessy forgave me, Evan and I were a couple again, and everything was looking up. After I’m done telling Dessy about what happened with Evan, I email Kelly about all the drama. She says that I must be blessed, and I kind of believed her. I think back to a conversation we had a few years ago about the same thing.  
“You’re charmed, Chloe Burke,” Kelly groans, putting her head down on the table.  
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I reply, wiggling my eyebrows. “Besides, I won that contest fair and square. I’m just a better singer than Rebecca.”  
Rebecca is one of the most popular girls at our school. She’s pretty much perfect, down to the last strawberry blonde eyelash. Plus, she’s the most amazing singer I’ve ever heard. Somehow, though, I ended up beating her at a singing competition, and now I’ve got a session in a recording studio.  
“You know she’s going to kill you, right?” Kelly says, lifting her head off the table and making eye contact with me. “She’s been talking about that recording studio session for forever.”  
“Yeah, well, I still won. And I’m going to that session.”  
“You don’t even want to be a singer,” Kelly continues. “Singing is Rebecca’s whole life.”  
“Hey, now. You could show a little support. Whose side are you on, anyway?”  
“Yours, Chloe, you know that,” Kelly says. “And I’m very proud of you. But I still think you’re blessed, or something.”  
I just shrug. “Maybe I am. At this rate, I could be famous before I even go to the Place.”  
Kelly lowers her eyes, but she just says, “I wouldn’t doubt it.”  
I ended up getting whooping cough when I was supposed to have the session, and Rebecca took my place. When Kelly came to visit me, she joked, “I guess whatever spell you cast has worn off.” I rasped some curses at her, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. Kelly had been right about the singing; it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Being a blue Jewel, I was probably going to make some sort of academic breakthrough, or at the very least get a good job and life in comfort. That’s the way it worked for people like me. So, in a way, Kelly was right about my being blessed.  
I finish my book, and then go for a walk with Evan, and everything is right with the world.  
The rest of the week goes by smoothly, and for a while I think Ryan is going to completely let what I did go. That’s before Friday, when I have to train with him.  
During Athletic training, we start off with rock climbing. When I make it to the top, he grabs my arm. “I haven’t forgotten what you did at the Halloween party,” he whispers in my ear. “You can pretend like everything’s normal with your little boyfriend, but I know what you really want.”  
“Leave me alone.” My voice is shaky, and that fact that I’m at the top of a rock-climbing wall isn’t helping.  
“Is that really what you want?”  
“Yes.” I really hope I sound convincing.  
Ryan lets me go and lowers himself to the ground without another word.  
The rest of the day is miserable. Even Intelligence training isn’t enough to cheer me up, and right after it’s over, I tell everyone I’m not feeling well and curl up in my bed. I don’t cry, but I feel hollow and awful. Everything isn’t okay. Not with Ryan holding that kiss over my head. Why had I been so stupid?  
Which brings my mind to another conversation with Kelly, which had taken place all the way back in second grade.  
“Why am I so stupid?” I’m yelling at Kelly. We’re in the playground, but instead of having fun, we’re sitting on a bench.  
Kelly shrugs. “I don’t know. Aren’t blue Jewels supposed to be smart?”  
“Yeah, we are,” I grumble, even though Kelly obviously knows this. “But…I don’t know, I just wanted a better view of the mirror. How was I supposed to know that the sink would break?”  
“Maybe it’s ’cause you’re so fat,” Kelly grins.  
I push her. “Shut up. Now I’m gonna get in trouble. What if I get expelled?” I start to cry. “They’ll never let me go the Place if I’m expelled!”  
Kelly pats my head. “They’re not gonna expel you. It’s not you’re fault that the mirrors are too high up. You’re gonna get to go to the Place.”  
I sniffle. “You think so?”  
“I know so. They can’t keep you out of the Place just ’cause of something you did in second grade.”  
Kelly had been right, as she usually is. The principal had said to me, “Now, if you had been older, and your situation had been…different, your consequences would have been more severe. But considering everything, we’re going to let this go. Just make sure you never do anything like this again, all right?”  
I had agreed. What else could I have done?  
Now, I’m afraid of real consequences. I’m not going to be let off the hook just because I’m a blue Jewel anymore. Hopefully, though, Ryan will consider his own reputation before he ruins mine.  
Actually, that makes a lot of sense. As long as he’s dating Elizabeth, he’s not going to say anything about the kiss. It doesn’t matter if he says I kissed him; Elizabeth won’t care. She’d dump him right away. Plus, it would be suspicious that he didn’t tell anyone before. Maybe, just maybe, I’m safe.  
I skip dinner and just stay in bed until I hear Natalie and Ashley enter. Ashley sits on the edge of my bed and asks, “Are you okay? You weren’t at dinner. Everyone was worried.”  
“I’m fine, just kind of tired.” The patheticness in my voice isn’t an act; it’s all authentic.  
“Okay, if you’re sure. Nothing happened?”  
“Nah, I’m fine, really. I skip dinner and just stay in bed until I hear Natalie and Ashley enter. Ashley sits on the edge of my bed and asks, “Are you okay? You weren’t at dinner. Everyone was worried.”  
“I’m fine, just kind of tired.” The patheticness in my voice isn’t an act; it’s all authentic.  
“Okay, if you’re sure. Nothing happened?”  
“Nah, I’m fine, really. It’s just been a tough week. I’m recovering from Halloween.”  
“Oh, of course. You get some rest, then.”  
That ends the questions, and Ashley heads to her own bed. Somehow, I manage to fall asleep.


	5. Chapter Five

Before long, it’s November, and time for everyone to come visit. My parents can’t make it; apparently, they’ve got some “really important” business they’ve got to take care of, that they just “have to do”. More likely they’re out spending all the money that the System has been sending them on my behalf. It’s not like I was too excited to see them, anyway. What I’m mainly looking forward to is Kelly, and she’s still coming.  
We’re on the phone talking on the Friday before when Kelly asks, “Is it all right if I bring Melanie?”  
“Sure, I mean, it’s not like it’s a party I’m planning or anything. Why does she want to come?”  
“She just wants to see what the Place looks like. She’s sort of doing research on Jeweled people and that kind of thing. And to meet you, of course,” she adds hastily.  
“She’s doing research? Like, for a class?”  
“Not exactly. She’s just really interested in that sort of thing. She wants to go into Jewel research when she gets older.”  
Jewel research is an official scientific study that’s been going on for years. It’s basically a bunch of scientists trying to figure out what’s different about Jeweled people, versus regular people. They haven’t discovered much, especially since they’re only allowed to test and observe dead bodies. Live testing on any Jeweled person is strictly prohibited by the System.  
“Oh, cool. So, how’s your love life?”  
Kelly groans. “Still non-existent, thank you very much.”  
“I thought you said you and Andrew were making progress!”  
“Yeah, so did I. But now I think he likes Melanie. Not that she reciprocates. Not that she’d like anyone, ever.”  
“Yeah, why is that? You said that guys ask her out all the time, but she never says yes.” If Melanie is researching Jeweleds, then I’m researching Melanie. I’m actually really excited to be meeting her. From the bits and pieces Kelly has given me, she seems really strange and interesting.  
“I actually asked her the other day. She just said, ‘People are nice to look at, but not to touch. Not for me, anyway.’ I don’t get it, but whatever floats her boat, I guess.”  
“Yeah, I guess.”  
We talk for a few more minutes, and then Kelly says she has to go. “You’re still coming on Wednesday, right?” I ask again, making sure.  
“Yes, Chloe,” Kelly sighs. “And I’m bringing Melanie. We’re going to be there.”  
“Just making sure,” I lilt. “See you then!”  
I hear a knock on the door and then Matt pops his head in.  
“Matt, seriously, you are worse than my mom. You’re supposed to wait for someone to tell you to come in after you knock. You don’t just walk in!” This has been an ongoing battle between Matt and me. He has the worst manners ever.  
“Whatever,” Matt smirks. “Dessy is requesting your presence.”  
“All right, I’m coming,” I grumble, getting off of my bed and following Matt into the common room. Dessy is waiting for us in the middle of the couch, and Matt and I plop down on either side of her.  
“So, who are you guys expecting for Visiting Day?” Dessy asks us.  
Matt sighs. “My parents. My embarrassing, overprotective, Asian parents.”  
“No one else?” Dessy inquires.  
Matt shakes his head. “Nope. I’m an only child. Well, I kind of am, since I haven’t seen or spoken to my older brother and sister in years. There is a 0% chance of them showing up.”  
“My parents can’t make it,” I state. “Kelly’s coming, though. And she’s bringing Melanie.”  
“Ooh, Cute Kelly and Mysterious Melanie? How exciting,” Dessy says. She gave Kelly the nickname of ‘Cute Kelly’ since I showed her a picture, and ‘Mysterious Melanie’ practically invented itself.  
“What about you, Dessy?” I ask.  
“My mom, dad, and little sister, Minnie,” Dessy answers. “I can’t wait to see her. I hope she hasn’t grown too much. I will die if I can no longer give her piggyback rides.”  
“How old is she?” Matt inquires. We don’t really know much about each other’s home lives, mainly because we talk too much about other things, and our pasts have kind of faded into the background. It actually takes effort to bring my mom’s eyes into focus, to hear my father’s laugh.  
“She just turned five,” Dessy tells him. “She’s literally the cutest. You’ll love her. Even you, Chloe. And I know you hate kids.”  
“That is true. But I’m sure your little sister’s adorable,” I add.  
Matt presses his face against a pillow. “I am not looking forward to this,” he moans, slightly muffled.  
“Not looking forward to what?” I look up, and there’s Evan, standing in the doorway.  
“Visiting Day,” Dessy and I clarify at the same time.  
“Oh, that,” Evan says, sitting down on a chair. “Right, you’ll all get to meet my parents.”  
We discuss parents and how awful all of ours are (I win, because mine aren’t coming), and then we split off into separate directions. Evan and Dessy go back to their Dorm, Matt starts talking to Alex, and I go back to my bed. I go to sleep early, which I do a lot.

Wednesday comes, and everyone rushes down to the training rooms to meet their families. I spot Kelly right away, and run over and give her a hug. “I’ve missed you!” I exclaim, squeezing her tightly. “I feel like it’s been forever since I last saw you.”  
“I know!” she agrees. Apart from a few new highlights in her hair, she doesn’t look much different. I am relieved by this.  
Then I turn to the girl standing beside Kelly. “Chloe, this is Melanie,” Kelly introduces us. “Melanie, this is Chloe.”  
“Nice to meet you,” I greet her.  
“Nice to meet you, too,” Melanie replies, but her heart doesn’t seem into it. She’s looking around the room with a heavy-lidded expression that I see Alice wear sometimes, even though I can tell from her intense expression that she’s interested. Her hair is oddly colored, with chunks of dyed red, yellow, and black all over. She’s wearing ripped jeans, and a T-shirt with the name of what must be her favorite band on it. She’s also got on striped fingerless gloves, and boots with spikes on them.  
She makes me a bit uncomfortable.  
“And this is Chloe!” I turn around to see Ashley pointing at me, gripping the arm of a woman who looks just like her, only slightly taller with a few more wrinkles. “She’s the girl part of the boy/girl Pair.”  
“And who was her Half again, dear?” the woman who must be Ashley’s mother asks.  
“Ryan Gray, Mom,” Ashley reminds her.  
“Oh, yes, the handsome one,” Ashley’s mother says with a grin. She winks at me. “You really lucked out with that one, didn’t you?”  
“Mom!” Ashley hisses with no real malice in her voice. “You’re embarrassing me!”  
“That’s my job, Ashley,” Ashley’s mom says. “You understand, don’t you, Chloe? Where are your parents?”  
“They…couldn’t make it.” I hadn’t thought about how awkward it would be to say that my parents didn’t care about me enough to come visit. It would almost be easier if I could just say I didn’t have parents.  
Ashley’s mom draws her eyebrows together. “Well, that’s a shame,” she murmurs. “They must have had a good reason, right?”  
“I suppose so.”  
“Oh, look, Mom, there’s Matt and his parents. Let’s go meet them.”  
They leave, and I give a little sigh. I hope I don’t have to go through that for everyone’s parents that I meet.  
The next people to come over to me are Evan and his parents. They look just like I had expected them to, moderately attractive, blonde, and kind. They shake my hand, and make a point not to ask where my parents are. For that, I’m grateful.  
“So, this is the famous Chloe, huh?” Evan’s dad, David, says.  
“We’ve heard so much about you,” Evan’s mom, Lily, adds, giving me a warm smile.  
Evan told his parents about me? It hadn’t even occurred to me to mention him to my parents. Did that make me a bad girlfriend? I shake the idea off, reasoning with myself that it just made them bad parents, for not letting me think that I could tell them things.  
“All good things, I hope,” I joke good-naturedly.  
“All wonderful things, I assure you,” Lily affirms.  
“He won’t shut up about you, sometimes,” David chuckles.  
“Guys,” Evan whines, and I giggle. It really is adorable to see him like this, acting like a kid. I always forget how young we all are, being away from our parents and having parties and making out. We’re really all still just kids. It’s something to think about, and I’m sure Kelly could find some way to turn it against the System.  
Evan’s parents wander off to talk to other parents, and I get to introduce him to Kelly. “You’re Evan, then, huh?” Kelly observes, not quite smiling.  
“Yup. And you’re Kelly,” Evan responds.  
There’s an awkward pause, and then Kelly launches herself onto Evan, giving him a hug. Her long, light brown arms surround his neck. “Chloe’s boyfriend!” she squeals in his ear. “You’re so cute!”  
I let out a happy sigh. That’s Kelly. That’s the Kelly I know and love.  
Evan gives a little chuckle and detaches himself. “Uh, thanks.”  
“Chloe talks about you all the time,” Kelly gushes.  
“All good things, I hope,” he says with a grin, parroting me from earlier. I slap his arm.  
After that, I go around meeting everyone else’s family. Natalie only has her older brother, who’s much darker than her, but with a more open, happy face. He has no Jewel, and his clothes seem old and worn, but he smiles at me warmly.  
My introduction to Matt’s parents is odd, to say the least. “Is this girl your girlfriend?” Matt’s mother asks immediately.  
Matt sighs. “No, Mom. This is Chloe. She’s Ryan’s half. She’s dating Evan,” he explains tiredly. I get the impression that he’s had to say this sort of thing about every girl he’s introduced his parents to.  
“Nice to meet you, Chloe,” Matt’s mother says to me with a kind smile. I barely get the chance to smile back before she turns her attention back on Matt. “You’re sure you’re not dating any of these girls?”  
“Yes, Mom, I’m pretty sure.” Matt gives me a pained look, and I give him a pouty face.  
“Not even that girl? She seems sweet,” Matt’s mom points at someone, and it takes everything I have not to burst out laughing when I see that it’s Dessy. Even Matt is biting back a smile.  
“No, Mom, we’re just very good friends.”  
Dessy chooses that moment to come over with her parents, who are short and adorable and just like Dessy.  
“Hey, guys!” Dessy greets us. “Mom, Dad, this is Chloe, and this is Matt. My best friends.”  
“It’s so nice to meet you!” Dessy’s parents shower us with Dessy-like affection.  
I pull Matt and Dessy away from the parents and introduce them to Kelly.  
The day goes like this, with introductions and so on, until it’s time for everyone to leave. When I go to say goodbye to Kelly, Melanie walks up instead and starts ranting to her. “It’s crazy! I went on the tour, Kelly, and this place is perfect. They’ve got professional chefs for the food they eat, and they have top of the line equipment and simulators. There’s even a basement where they have parties, with alcohol. Alcohol! Can you believe it?”  
I choose this moment to intervene. “Um, did you enjoy the tour?”  
Melanie turns to me, and her eyes are blazing. They remind me how Kelly’s looked on the day I left, except a thousand times worse.  
“Enjoy it? It’s disgusting! You get paradise based on what? A Jewel? That’s complete and utter bullshit. There are so many people not given opportunities, who are out of jobs, because of people like you. People who are just as qualified, and dedicated, and smart, are turned away because of something as superficial as a Jewel. It’s a whole new prejudice, and you’re right in the middle of it. How can you live with yourself?”  
I’m completely taken aback, and just stand there with my mouth slightly open.  
“Melanie…” Kelly says in a warning tone.  
Melanie rolls her eyes and turns around to glare at her. “Come off it, Kelly! How can you act like this girl’s friend? You pretend like everything’s fine, and it’s not. Do you really think she’d be your friend if she knew what you said about her? About people like her? Look, pretend all you want, but I know where you belong. And that’s with me. With me, Nathan, and Andrew. We’re the Resistance. We can’t lie.” With that, she walks out to the plane.  
I avoid looking at Kelly, even when she comes over to me. “Chloe, I’m so sorry about her—”  
“You talk about me? To that girl?” I’m furious. “No, that’s not even the worst thing. What the hell is the Resistance? What are you saying about us? How is she any better than me? What’s so wrong with me?”  
“Nothing’s wrong with you. Really. You’re great. It’s…” she sighs. “It’s the System. Melanie, Nathan, Andrew, and I all think it’s corrupt. We don’t think it’s fair that Jeweled people get all the good jobs and stuff while normal people starve on the streets. It’s not like we could do anything about it. We’re just—”  
“Whatever, Kelly. Just…leave, okay?” I can’t look at her, and I’m dangerously close to tears. I can’t cry in front of her, not now.  
Thankfully, she doesn’t argue, or cause a scene. She just says, “Okay” and leaves.  
I can’t think of any word to describe how I’m feeling. I knew how Kelly felt about the System, but I didn’t think she’d go as far as joining the Resistance.  
The Resistance has been around almost as long as the System, but it’s very hush-hush. Members are against the System, and it’s their goal to bring it down. Some members hate Jeweled people; some just hate the idea. Either way, they’re dangerous, and most definitely not to be trusted. And now Kelly’s one of them?  
I ignore Dessy and Matt, who come up to me to ask what happened, and just storm to my Dorm. I flop down on the bed, and flip open my laptop.  
I search “Jeweled privileges”. The results that pop up include photos of the Place, information about the jobs that they get, and things like that. I find a chart that shows the unemployment rate with Jeweleds vs. Non-Jeweleds. It makes my stomach drop. I probably should have known about it, but seeing it there is completely mind-blowing.  
Is Melanie right? Is this whole thing a new type of prejudice? I know that there used to be racism, where white people thought they were better than anyone else. Is this like that? There are major differences, though. People with Jewels are proven to be more intelligent or more athletic than other people. It’s possible that they would have been born like that anyway, and they would have gotten the jobs, even if the Jewels weren’t there. It could be just people grasping at straws, but if not…  
The whole thing gives me a bad feeling, and I turn off the laptop and put my face in my pillow. I haven’t been lying there for more than a few minutes before I hear the door open.  
“Chloe?” I hear Dessy’s voice. I look up and see her and Matt standing tentatively in the doorway. “Are you okay?”  
I give them a dull stare, and then a small smile. “What have I said about knocking?”  
They take this as an invitation to come over and sit on my bed. “Seriously, though,” Dessy continues. “I saw what happened with Kelly and Melanie. I couldn’t hear what you were saying, but you all looked pretty upset. Do you want to talk about it?”  
I shake my head. “No. It’s not worth it. Let’s change the subject, shall we? Did anything happen with you two?”  
A mischievous grin spreads over Dessy’s face, and Matt’s cheeks turn pink. “Dessy,” he warns, “don’t you dare.”  
“So,” Dessy starts, “did you happen to notice Matt’s mom’s insistence that there must be some girl he was dating? Also, can I just call her Helen? It would be so much easier.”  
Matt puts his head in his hands. “Oh, God. Sure, go for it.”  
“Anyway, they came over to me, and Helen was pretty dead-set on getting a romantic confession from me, since Matt and I seemed so close.”  
“Did you give one?” I ask.  
Dessy’s grin grows wider. “Of a sort. Probably not the one she was hoping for.”  
“Kill me now,” Matt groans.  
(I’m gonna tell this part as if I actually saw it happen, because it will be so much better that way, trust me.)  
“Actually,” Dessy said to Helen, “it would be a bit problematic if I dated your son.”  
“And why would that be?” Helen questioned defensively.  
“Because, I’m a lesbian. Which means I like girls. Plus, Matt here—”  
“Is dating me.” At that moment, Alex Martinez came up behind Matt and put his arm around here. Matt’s legs almost gave out, but he managed to stay standing and just gave a little start.  
Helen recoiled, a look of shock and disgust on her face. “Matthew! Is this true?”  
“Um, Mom, this is my Half, Alex,” Matt said, avoiding the question.  
“Half and boyfriend,” Alex added cheerily, giving Matt a kiss on the cheek. “It’s about time we told your mom.”  
“Right,” Matt squeaked. “Um, my boyfriend. Alex. Yeah.”  
Helen put on a pained expression that was probably supposed to be a smile. “Well, it’s certainly nice to meet you, Alex. Matthew, it’s time for us to go.”  
Matt’s dad during all this was apparently just standing there not saying anything. However, when he was about to get on the plane, he pulled Matt aside and whispered, “Good for you.”  
Back to the present.  
“I wish I could have seen the look on your mom’s face!” I cackle, all drama with Kelly forgotten.  
“Oh my god, Chloe, it was priceless,” Dessy confirms, clutching at my arm to keep from falling off my bed.  
“I can’t believe Alex actually did that!”  
“I know! I honestly still can’t believe it,” Matt exclaims. “After everyone left, he told me that he just wanted to get my mom off my back.”  
“Oh, Alex, I never knew you cared!” Dessy says in a falsetto voice, clutching at her heart with one hand and putting the other one to her forehead.  
“So, what’s the verdict? Are you, like, totally in love with him, or what?” I ask.  
“I might like him a little bit,” Matt admits, which sends Dessy and me into a squealing fit. “But it’s not like anything would happen. He’s 100% straight.”  
Dessy and I exchange a look. I’m pretty sure that Alex most definitely is not 100% straight, no matter what Matt thinks. For one thing, there was that kiss during Truth or Dare. Straight guys do not do that. Plus, pretending to be Matt’s boyfriend? There is nothing straight about that.  
“He’s got to be at least bisexual,” Dessy says.  
“Definitely,” I nod.  
“Whatever,” Matt waves us off. “He’s my Half. I’d never date him, and more important, he’d never date me. It will never happen, so get those crazy ideas out of your head, ladies.”  
“I still think it’s gonna happen,” Dessy says. “You’re definitely more likely to get a boyfriend than I am to get a girlfriend. I don’t think I’ve met one lesbian my whole time here.”  
“Don’t give up hope, Dessy,” I say, giving her a hug. “Your Princess Charming is out there somewhere.”  
“I’m waiting to get swept off my feet,” Dessy sighs. The she gets up and stands on my bed. “YO, PRINCESS CHARMING!” she screams. “HURRY THE FUCK UP!”  
At that moment, Alice walks in, and Dessy is so startled that she falls off the bed.  
“Um, I was just going to ask you three if you wanted to come to dinner with us, but if I’m interrupting something…”  
“No, not at all,” Matt says, his coolness redeemed by Dessy’s dorkiness. She’s still on the ground. “Dessy was just yelling at her Princess Charming to hurry the fuck up.”  
Alice smirks. “Well, here she is,” she says, and helps Dessy off the floor. “Come on.” And they walk out together.  
“Do you ever feel like Dessy’s letting herself get led on? Alice is never going to actually go out with her,” I say.  
“True enough, but hey, I’m in the exact same boat. Unrequited love is tough,” Matt points out.  
“I hear ya,” I say, my mind unintentionally going to Ryan.  
Matt gives me a weird look. “Um, no you don’t. You’re in a happy hetero relationship, remember? Or has Evan suddenly stopped worshipping the ground you walk on?”  
I blush. “No. I mean, he doesn’t do that anyway, but…whatever. I just meant I’ve been through that in the past. The unrequited love thing. No one’s ever really liked me before now. Well, no one I’ve liked back,” I clarify.  
“Poor baby,” Matt scoffs, and I slap him. “Well, we should get to dinner.”  
We exit the Girls’ Dorm, and run into Alex in the Common Room. “Hey,” he greets us, but he’s looking at Matt.  
“Hey,” Matt says awkwardly. “Um, I never actually said it, but thanks. You know, for today, with my mom.”  
“No problem,” Alex accepts the thanks easily, with a smile. “We’re friends, right? That’s what friends do for each other.” Then, he gives Matt a clap on the shoulder and walks out of the room.  
I hear Matt’s breath hitch and give a little smile. “You like him way more than you’ll ever admit, don’t you?” I ask slyly.  
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Matt shrugs, straightening his spine and following Alex to the Cafeteria. I grin and head after him.  
The second Evan sees me, he gets up and gives me a kiss. I sit next to him, with Dessy on my other side, and Matt in front of us, just the way I like it. Alex sits next to Matt, with all the other Athletics on his other side. It is comfortable and routine, and I love it.  
“Will I ever get to meet your parents?” Evan asks, half-teasing, half-serious.  
I shrug, which is the most honest answer I can give. “I’ve told you about my parents,” I say, even though I really don’t mention them much. “They don’t care about anything but the money I’m making. And they were against the System before I was born. I don’t think they want to see the Place.”  
Yes, it’s true. My parents were against the System. They weren’t officially part of the Resistance, but they were considering it when my mom got pregnant. Their logic was that if I was born without a Jewel, which was very likely, then they would join the Resistance, and fight for my equal rights. When I ended up being Jeweled, their plan was deflated, and they withdrew. All their Resistance friends instantly turned on them, and they were outcasts, in the Jeweled world, and the Resistance.  
I believe that they resent me for this. I’ve often caught my dad glaring at me Jewel with an intensity in his eyes that I’ve seen in Kelly’s, and now Melanie’s. The Resistance glare. I’ve often tried to look at my mom, and she can’t bring herself to look me in the eyes. So there’s never been much love between my parents and I, but I try not to think about it.  
“Your parents were nice, though,” I tell Evan, because thinking about my parents is making me depressed.  
“They’re so embarrassing,” Evan groans. “They love you, though.”  
“I’m glad to hear it.”  
Ashley, overhearing our conversation, leans her head over. “Oh, please, Evan. Your parents were dolls. My mom is the epitome of embarrassing. She literally rated all of you on a scale of 1-10 of attractiveness.”  
“Oooh, I’d like to know my score,” Alice coos, raising an eyebrow at Ashley.  
Ashley blushes and says, “Um. 9.5.”  
Alice nods, apparently satisfied.  
I roll my eyes. “At least your mom showed up!”  
“Hey,” Matt butts in, “I’m pretty sure I win. Alex literally had to pretend to be my boyfriend to make my mom shut up.”  
“Okay, yeah, that’s pretty bad,” Elizabeth giggles, tying her blond hair back into a ponytail.  
Alex gives a lopsided smirk. “You should’ve heard the lecture my dad gave me after she saw that. I swear, he used the words ‘family values’ about 70 times.”  
“I didn’t know that,” Matt says, turning to look at Alex.  
Alex shrugs. “It’s not a big deal. My dad can be a homophobic bigot. He needed to be knocked down a few pegs.”  
“At least you all have parents,” Natalie mutters. That shuts us up.  
None of us are really sure what happened to Natalie’s parents. Ashley said that she mentioned once that her dad was black and her mom was white, so she must have known them, or at least knew who they were. Other than that, we don’t know if they died, or abandoned her, or what.  
That night, I go up to my Dorm and check my phone. I have a few mixed texts from Kelly. I don’t bother reading past the first one, which is apologizing. Why does this keep happening to us? Before I came to the Place, we were inseparable. Now, we can barely keep ourselves from fighting. I can’t describe too much about where I am before she gets jealous and angry. Now, she can’t tell me about what’s happening with her and her friends without having me feel betrayed.  
Is it really that hard for Jeweleds and non-Jeweleds to be friends? There are so many articles and books about it, and the way the authors tell it, they might as well be different species. There are a few people who believe that they can be friends, but they are few and far between. Now, with all that’s happened, I’m starting to think it’s the truth: we simply can’t be friends.  
Comparing Dessy to Kelly is a weird thing to do. Dessy is my new friend; Kelly is my old one. But they do have a few similarities. They can both make me laugh so hard that I cry. I can have a conversation one-on-one conversation with them without running out of things to say. And yet I fight with Kelly all the time now, and never with Dessy. Is it because Dessy has a Jewel? Are we all really snobs like the Resistance thinks? I really hope not. Kelly is making me rethink everything, and I’m not sure I like it.  
It’s impossible to fall asleep with my mind so full and my stomach so queasy. I just lie in bed and let a few tears slip free until morning.


	6. Chapter Six

The next few weeks pass uneventfully. It’s the first week of December, and everyone is exited about Christmas. I have no idea what I’m going to get anyone, since I’ve always been pretty bad with gifts. That’s what I’m discussing with Dessy when we come out of Intelligence training and start walking to our Dorms.  
“Like, what am I supposed to get Evan?” I’m lamenting. “He got me such a perfect birthday gift, and I have no idea what to get him.”  
“Well, what am I supposed to get Alice?” Dessy shoots back. “I’ve never had a friend like her, and I don’t know what popular girls like.”  
“You know what Alice likes,” I point out. “Just get her some jewelry, and you’ll be fine.”  
Dessy nods, but then frowns. “Do you think I have to get Elizabeth a present? Because she’s my Half and Alice’s best friend?”  
I shrug. “I’m getting a present for everyone on my Team. Plus you and Evan, of course.”  
“You’re gonna get a gift for Ryan?” Dessy says incredulously. “What are you gonna get him?”  
“A box of condoms,” I joke. Seeing Dessy’s horrified expression, I quickly add, “Not really. At least, I think not really. If I can’t think of anything else, that’s probably gonna be what I fall back on.”  
Dessy eyes me suspiciously. “I am keeping a close eye on you when we go shopping,” she promises.  
“Okay,” I say. At this point we’ve made it to our Dorms, which are right across the hall from each other. “I’m gonna read for a while, I’ll see you at lunch, okay?”  
“Yeah, see you.”  
We part ways, and I enter my Dorm.  
And scream.  
I rush back into the hall and see Dessy has emerged from her Dorm, too. “My Dorm, it’s…” I try to put what I saw into words, but I am less than successful.  
“Mine too.” Dessy nods.  
At this point, Ashley, Ryan, and Elizabeth walk into the hallway and go to enter the Dorms.  
“Wait!” Dessy and I cry out. They all look at us quizzically.  
“Something’s…happened. In the Dorms,” Dessy stammers.  
“It’s really weird,” I add unhelpfully.  
Ryan shrugs and opens the door, and Elizabeth does the same. I hear her gasp, just as Ryan mutters, “What the…”  
Ryan walks further into the Dorm, and Ashley and I follow him. Even though I’ve already seen it, it still shocks me.  
The Common Room is wrecked. The couch and chairs are overturned, and there is red and black paint splattered all over the walls. I can see feathers, and I realize that the couch’s stuffing was ripped out. I walk over to the mirror, and see that something’s been written on it.  
“Join us—the Rogues,” Ashley reads from behind me. I jump.  
“Do you think it’s the same in the other Dorm?” Ryan asks.  
We walk out into the hallway just as Elizabeth and Dessy do. We sort of nod at each other and switch Dorms. It’s very much the same in theirs, complete with the “Join us” note on the mirror from the Rogues.  
Soon we’re joined by the rest of our Teams. The second everyone has seen the Dorms, we gather in the hallway and everyone starts talking at once.  
“What the hell happened?”  
“Who are the Rogues?”  
“What do we do?”  
Finally, Tyrone, of all people, shouts, “QUIET!” which sufficiently shuts us up. “I think we should call our Team leaders,” he suggests in a calm voice.  
We agree, and soon Erica and Adam come upstairs.  
“Where are Mallory and Jason?” Tyrone asks them. I’m surprised that he even remembers their names; we’ve barely seen our Team leaders since we first arrived at the Place.  
“They’ve been relocated,” Erica answers briskly. “Adam and I have unofficially adopted you. Now, what’s the problem?”  
“It’s the Dorms,” Ryan tells her. “They’ve been trashed.”  
Adam and Erica raise their eyebrows and exchange looks of shock. “What?”  
“Whoever did it left a note on the mirrors,” I say, finding my voice. “Join us. From the…Rogues?” It comes out as a question.  
Erica and Adam’s faces immediately change. Adam’s eyes widen in shock, and Erica gives a little gasp.  
“What does it mean?” Tyrone asks gently, seeing the looks on their faces.  
Instead of answering, Erica goes into our Dorm, and Adam goes into Dessy’s Team’s. When they’ve inspected it thoroughly, they turn and walk down the hallway, and we all tentatively follow. They lead us down to the training rooms, where Adam mutters something to a guy standing there. The guy’s eyes widen, and he nods and walks away, talking into a phone urgently. Erica and Adam walk into the Athletic training room, and we all sit down.  
“Okay,” Erica begins. “We have some things to tell you. Before we tell you about the Rogues, we have to tell you about the Jewel mutations.”  
“Jewel mutations?” Dessy squeaks. I squeeze her hand. She seems really shaken up by the whole thing.  
Erica nods. “It started a few years after the Place was constructed. There was a girl named Millicent Johnson. She was a blue Jewel, and excelled in mathematics. There really wasn’t anything strange about her, except that she was rather quiet and didn’t communicate much with the other members of her Team. And then…her Jewel began changing color.  
“It was very gradual, just getting a little bit darker every time you looked at it. No one noticed it until it was completely black. And by then it was too late.  
“No one knew what it meant, so the Head Officers decided it was best she be put in solitary confinement, and maybe tested on, until they could find out what exactly had happened. They weren’t expecting a struggle. When some Officers came to get her, she retaliated, and killed two of them before she was restrained. One of the Officers that was there said she smiled the whole time.”  
Erica sighs and shakes her head, and Adam takes the cue to continue. “She was declared mentally unstable, and because of the murders, they…put her down immediately.”  
Everyone in the room is captivated, taking in every word. It’s the first any of us has heard of this, I’m sure of it.  
“It happened again two years later, this time to a boy Fred Gillian, a red Jewel. His Jewel became lighter, turning white. The Head Officers had learned their lesson, and the second someone noticed the change, he was taken and locked up. They performed…tests on him, which ultimately resulted in his death.”  
I hear a quiet sob, and turn to see Ashley, with tears running down her face, making her eyes even greener than usual. She notices me and sort of waves me away, mouthing, “I’m fine.” I reach out a hand and pat her shoulder, feeling bad that there’s not much else I can do. Then, to my surprise, Natalie scoots over and gives Ashley a hug. Ashley leans her head onto Natalie’s shoulder, and I turn back around.  
“It would happen now and again, and was always dealt with, and kept under wraps. A few were killed, a few were experimented on, and a few escaped.”  
“The Rogues,” Erica takes over, “are a Team that went bad two years ago. All of their Jewels changed at once, and they all escaped before they could be contained. They left a note, saying that we hadn’t seen the last of them. They signed it the Rogues.”  
“What do they want?” Elizabeth asks.  
“We’re not sure,” Erica answers honestly. “It could be anything from normal lives to world domination. But whatever it is, it has something to do with you. They want you. That cannot be ignored.”  
“What are you gonna do with us?” Evan asks.  
“We’re going to prepare you,” Adam says. “We’re going to declare you official Field Workers, effective immediately. You’ll head out on your first Task in a week.”  
There are gasps of shock from everyone. This is completely unheard of. Teams aren’t sent into the Field until they’re 100% ready. Sophomores never get Tasks, and even most Juniors are still in training by the end of the year.  
“The next week of training will be extremely intense,” Erica tells us. “Every day you will be confronted with two different Tasks that you will have to complete with your Team. You have to be completely focused. Anyone goofs off, and they will not be going on the Task. If you don’t want to go on the Task, that is fine. This is a very unique situation, and I understand that none of you asked for this. You may sit out of training next week, or participate in the training and simply not go one the Task.” Erica pauses. “That being said, is there anyone who knows that they do not wish to go on the Task?”  
I look around, seeing if anyone is going to raise their hand. I glance behind me at Ashley, but her tears are gone now, and she’s just sitting there in stony silence, like everyone else.  
Erica clears her throat. “Excellent. Rest up this weekend; you’ll need it.” She starts to walk out the door, Adam right behind her, and then she stops. “I’m very proud of all of you,” she says, surprising everyone. “I know it seems like I haven’t been around, but I’ve been watching. You’re one of the very best Teams this year. And that includes the older Field Workers. Some Teams have excellent individuals, but can’t work together. You guys seem to click. Never lose that.” With that, she’s gone.  
“Well, that was unexpected,” Alice says, breaking through the silence.  
Ryan snorts. “Which part?”  
This earns a little laugh from everyone.  
“It was all pretty shocking,” Ashley agrees.  
“Nah, Erica’s speech was definitely the most unexpected,” Matt says in a joking tone.   
“It’s just all so crazy,” I think out loud.  
“We should probably try to look on the bright side,” Evan says. “I mean, we’re only sophomores, and we’re getting our first Task in a week. People would kill to be in our position.”  
“Let’s hope no one actually gets killed,” Dessy says, not looking up from her Jewel. She’s been staring at it for the last five minutes. I sneak a quick glance at my own. Still blue. I breathe a sigh of relief.  
I look around and see that pretty much everyone else is inspecting their Jewels, too. Matt looks up from his and catches my eye. He blushes.  
“All right, if anyone’s Jewel has changed color, now would be a good time to say it,” I address the room. Everyone looks up sharply. Then Alice bursts out laughing.  
“I’m sorry,” she chokes out. “If I didn’t do something I was going to have a fit. I just can’t stay serious.”  
The rest of us break into laughter, too, and then we all start talking to each other normally. Matt scoots over to talk with me and Dessy, and Natalie and Ashley join us as well.  
“Holy crap, we’re going on a Task,” is the first thing out of my mouth.  
“Where do you think it’ll be?” Ashley asks.  
“What do you think it will be?” Dessy asks. “What Task could they possibly give to a bunch of barely trained sophomores? I mean, we just started weapons training two weeks ago!”  
“Yeah, but most of us are pretty good at at least one type of weapon,” Matt points out.  
This is true. I’m pretty handy with a knife, myself, where Dessy has a random talent for throwing ninja stars. You just never know what you’re going to be good at.  
“I think it’ll have something to do with someone with a mutated Jewel,” Natalie tells us. “We need to come up with a name for that, seriously.”  
“A Mutie?” Ashley suggests.  
We all just sort of look at her, then shrug. It’s better than nothing.  
“Yeah,” Natalie continues. “You know how Erica said that some of the Muties escaped? Before the Rogues? I think they might send us to track one down.”  
“It makes sense,” Dessy admits. “That way, we’ll get used to dealing with them.”  
“I don’t know,” I shake my head. “One escaped Mutie is one thing, but six of them? I don’t think anything will prepare us for the Rogues.”  
“Well, we have to try,” Matt shrugs. “But right now, I’m just gonna focus on the simulated Tasks we have to do. Usually, even really good Teams don’t start those until near the end of sophomore year.”  
“Plus, there are more of us,” Ashley says. “That could be a good thing or a bad thing. We might not be that good at communicating with everyone at first, but there’s definitely strength in numbers.”  
“Oh, yeah, we’re all on the same Team now!” I exclaim, having completely forgotten about that. I pull Dessy into a side hug. “Team buddies!”  
“We probably have to keep our Halves, though,” Dessy says glumly, glancing at Elizabeth, who’s in Ryan’s lap.  
“Yeah, that’s pretty permanent, even for a Super Team,” I say, matching her glum tone.  
“A Super Team?” Natalie asks, raising her eyebrows at me.  
“That’s pretty much what we are, isn’t it?” I defend myself. “A team with twelve people instead of six, who are going on a Task only three months into sophomore year? I’m pretty sure that qualifies us as a Super Team.”  
“To the Super Team!” Dessy crows, pumping her fist in the air.  
“What this I hear about a Super Team?” Alice asks, walking over to us. I explain my theory of us being a Super Team, and her eyes light up. “That’s genius!” she cries, clapping her hands together. “You guys! We’re a Super Team!”  
Soon, we’re officially declared a Super Team, and we even have a cheer, courtesy of Alice and Elizabeth. I laugh along with everyone else as Elizabeth and Alice wave around pretend pom-poms and shake their butts at us, reciting the cheer. I feel unbelievably grateful to them in that moment, because I know if I wasn’t laughing right now, I’d be consumed by anticipation and dread.  
At that moment, Erica and Adam walk back into the room, and just sort of blink at the scene in front of them.  
“We’re a Super Team!” Alice cheers by way of explanation, and we all burst out laughing again.  
Erica gives a little sigh, but I can tell she’s trying not to laugh. Adam doesn’t even bother concealing his smile, revealing all his perfect teeth. “Okay, well, while your usual Dorms are being cleaned, you will be moving into a senior building. There are two Teams that are on a long-term Task in Africa, and aren’t expected back any time soon.”  
“We’re going to be in the senior building?” Dessy asks incredulously.  
“It will work to our advantage, since you will be trained in a senior Task simulator. The Team of seniors who usually train at that time will be moved back here for the time being,” Adam explains.  
“Won’t they be mad?” Ashley asks.  
Erica smiles. “I don’t think so. In fact, they’ll probably be relieved at a break. They’ll be going back to where they started, reliving memories. They’ll get to mess around again. I think they’ll enjoy it.”  
“Now, we’ll lead you to your new Dorms,” Adam says. He and Erica exit, and the rest of us follow.  
The senior building isn’t too different from the sophomore building, except that the people walking around are older. When we reach our Dorms, though, we’re in for a bit of a shock. The Dorm rooms are much cooler. The couches are bigger, there’s a big-screen TV, and bean bags.  
“This is awesome,” I say the second we walk in.   
“Can we keep these rooms forever?” Ashley asks, not really kidding.  
Adam and Erica exchange a look, and then Erica says, “For as long as the Teams who occupied them are gone, these rooms are yours.”  
“Is it true that the Dorms in the 20-year-old buildings have hot tubs and pool tables?” Alice asks, a mischievous look in her eye.  
Adam and Erica exchange a different look, Adam raising an eyebrow and Erica trying not to smile. Adam leans in towards Erica’s ear and mutters, “We had a lot of fun in that hot tub, didn’t we?”  
Erica giggles and slaps his shoulder. “Adam! Shut up!”  
It’s weird seeing them like this, not so serious for once, just being flirty friends. I look around and see Alex mouthing, “I called it.”  
I give him a thumbs-up and turn back to Adam and Erica. “Now, we haven’t really talked about how we’re going to set up these Dorms,” Erica says. “For simplicity’s sake, I think we’re going to have you all just stay in the same places, at least for now. You’re obviously free to some and go through the Dorms as you please, but sleep in your original places.”  
I shrug, thinking that’s pretty much fair. After Erica and Adam leave, we all sort of split up. Ryan joins Jack, Elizabeth, and Alice in the other Dorm room. Evan, Dessy, Natalie, Ashley, Tyrone, and I all group together in the Girls’ Dorm, sitting on the beds and talking, mainly about when we’re going to be able to get our stuff back and bring it here.  
After a few minutes of this, Dessy asks, “Hey, where’s Matt?”  
“I think he went to the Boys’ Dorm,” Ashley offers, “but I’m not sure.”  
“I’ll go get him,” I say, hopping off the bed and walking over to the Boys’ Dorm.  
I don’t knock.  
When I open the door, the first thing I see is Alex and Matt. Making out. My jaw drops. Then I notice that Alex is taking off his shirt, and Matt is doing the same, and…I slowly back away, and close the door quietly.  
I go back into the Girls’ Dorm, my jaw still hanging open. Everyone looks at me quizzically.  
“What’s wrong, Chloe?” Evan asks.  
“Yeah, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Dessy says.  
“Not a ghost,” I say. “I saw Matt.”  
“So?” Tyrone asks. “What was he doing?”  
I let out a random giggle. More like who was he doing, I think. “Uh…” I start. “He was…with…Alex. They were pretty…busy.”  
Dessy lets out a shriek of glee, and actually falls off the bed laughing. Ashley claps her hands, Natalie snorts and shakes her head fondly, Evan smiles, and Tyrone looks confused. “Wait,” Tyrone says. “What were they doing?”  
This kills Dessy, and she starts gasping for air, with tears running down her face. “Oh my god,” she wheezes. “Seriously?”  
“They were together,” I try again, making vague hand gestures.  
Tyrone nods. “Yeah, I get that they were together, but what were they doing?”  
“No, Tyrone, you don’t get it,” I say gently.  
“They were having sex!” Dessy shouts from the floor, not over her hysterics.  
Tyrone turns white.  
“Well, um,” I stammer. “They were really just making out. But there were shirts being removed.”  
“I think I’m gonna have a heart attack,” Dessy cries from the floor.  
When Dessy regains what little sanity she has, and gets off the floor, we continue having a vaguely normal conversation. Dessy breaks into giggles about every five minutes, and Tyrone just sits there in a kind of horrified silence.  
We do this for about thirty minutes before Matt walks in, looking sort of ruffled with undeniable sex hair. This sets Dessy off again, and she’s rolling on the floor in a matter of seconds. Tyrone’s eyes widen and he backs away from Matt.   
Matt furrows his brow. “What’s going on?”  
Dessy howls, and I give an apologetic little shrug. “I kind of walked in on you when you…preoccupied.”  
Matt widens his eyes and goes pink, and Dessy yells, “I’m so proud of you!” She gets up and tackles Matt with a hug. “My little baby’s all grown up!”  
Matt, as you’d expect, has no idea what to say. He just kind of stands there and lets Dessy hug him. “You are telling me everything later,” she whispers into his ear, just loudly enough for me to hear.  
“I think it’s time for dinner,” Natalie says, rising from her bed and walking towards the door.  
“Thank you,” Matt mouths at her. Natalie gives him a wink.  
We all exit the room, Tyrone managing to stay as far away from Matt as humanly possible.  
At dinner, we all sit at one table, Athletics on one side and Intelligence on the other, as usual.  
“We should all get together in one of the Dorms tonight, and celebrate our Super Team awesomeness,” Alice suggests.  
“I’ll get the booze,” Ryan says.  
That night, we all gather in my Dorm, passing around a bottle and talking. Alice, the declared hostess, gets more drunk than the rest of us.  
“I will pay five dollars,” she slurs, “to anyone who will make out with their Half for a minute. Raise your hand if you accept the challenge.”  
I glance at Ryan. He shrugs. “I’ll do it if you want to,” he says. I look at Evan. He gives me a thumbs-up, which I’m surprised about at first, but then I realize that he hasn’t been drinking from the bottle. So, no jealous and possessive behavior tonight. I shrug and raise my hand.  
Ryan and I are joined by Matt and Alex and Elizabeth and Dessy right away. Then Natalie and Ashley shrug and raise their hands. Right before Alice is about to start the timer, Tyrone taps her and raises his hand. Alice grins predatorily before handing the timer to Evan and Jack, the only Pair that isn’t participating. “Ready, set…go!”  
Before I lose my nerve, I crash my face into Ryan’s. I’m getting that five dollars. I try not to look like I’m enjoying it too much, for Evan’s sake, and listen to what’s going on around me. About ten seconds in, I hear giggles that I recognize as Ashley’s and Natalie’s. So, they’re out. About five seconds later, I hear, “Okay, no, I can’t do this,” in Dessy’s voice. They’re out too. The rest of the minute, all I hear is slurping sounds, and a couple of moans that I definitely do not make. (Honestly. Most of them came from Matt and Alice.)  
“Time!” Evan calls. I break away from Ryan and wipe my mouth, pretending to be disgusted, when in actuality, Ryan’s a really good kisser.  
“Who do I owe?” Alice asks, detaching herself from Tyrone, who stares at her longingly, all flushed and bothered.  
“Ryan, Chloe, Matt, Ryan, and Tyrone,” Jack lists.  
“Damn,” Alice says. She looks at Matt and Alex, obviously impressed. “I thought for sure you two wouldn’t last.”  
Matt and Alex shrug simultaneously, which earns a giggle from Dessy. I collect my five dollars and turn to Dessy. “How come you couldn’t do it?” I ask.  
Dessy wrinkles her nose. “It just felt kind of gross. Almost like I was kissing my sister. I just couldn’t keep going.”  
Evan comes over to me, and I start feeling nervous. “Hey, boyfriend,” I greet him.  
To my relief, he smiles. “Hey, it was for five dollars,” Evan shrugs. “If my Half was a chick, I would have done it.”  
“You can’t know that for sure,” Dessy says, pointing her finger at him. “I like chicks, and my Half is a chick, and I couldn’t do it.”  
“Maybe we should all just not make out with poultry,” I say, which earns a laugh. “But really, I’m surprised that Tyrone held out. I never would have thought he could do it.”  
“Yeah, and look, now he’s in love,” Evan points to Tyrone, who’s still staring at Alice.  
Dessy shakes her head. “Poor kid. Well, at least now we have something in common.”  
“You should start an unrequited love club,” I joke.  
Dessy sighs. “Yeah, but now that Matt and Alex are a thing, the club would consist of me and Tyrone. It would be pretty lame.”  
“I don’t know, I think Jack has a thing for Natalie,” Evan says.  
“Me, Jack, and Tyrone,” Dessy says. “That would make for one strange club.”  
“What club?” Matt asks, having appeared next to Dessy.  
“The Unrequited Love Club,” Dessy tells him. “Which you cannot be a member of now, because you and Alex are getting all freaky between the sheets.”  
Matt blushes. “It was one time,” he says. “He probably regrets it already. It won’t happen again.”  
Dessy rolls her eyes. “Right. Which is why he just made out with you for a minute.”  
“That was for five dollars,” Matt protests.  
“Bullshit,” I say. “Matt, stop denying it. You and Alex are a thing. Deal with it.”  
Matt sighs. “Whatever. I’m going to bed.”  
We all think that’s a pretty good idea, and split off to our separate Dorms. Evan kisses me goodbye, and I savor every second.  
I sit on my bed with my laptop, and decide to compose an email to Kelly.  
Hey, Kelly. It’s Chloe.  
I realize I haven’t texted or called or emailed or anything in a while, and I’m sorry. I just needed some time to calm down after what happened. I hope you understand.  
I want us to stay friends, Kelly. We’ve been through so much already, and I don’t want a stupid Jewel to get in the middle of our friendship. So I’m going to be honest, and honestly tell you about what’s going on with me. I hope you will do the same.  
A lot has happened recently. There’s a group of Jeweleds who turned bad called the Rogues. Their Jewels changed colors, which meant they have corrupted minds or something. (We call them Muties.) Anyway, they trashed my Dorm and Dessy’s Dorm and left a note that said, “Join us.” So now we’re being trained at super speed and going on our first Task in a week. I’m really excited, but I’m really nervous, too. We’re probably the first sophomores to go on a real Task EVER.  
We’re not sure what the Task is, but Natalie thinks it’s got something to do with a Mutie. I think she might be right. We’re beginning Task training (in the senior building!) on Monday. I’m worried that we’re not going to do well as a Team, even now that we’ve conjoined my and Dessy’s Teams to make a Super Team (my words). Even after everything, Ryan is still my Half, and we only just started weapons training! I’m pretty good with a knife, can you believe it?  
How are things with you? Is Andrew still playing games? Everything’s fine with me and Evan, by the way. Oh! And guess what? Matt and Alex are officially a thing. I actually walked in on them making out, so all of Dessy’s fantasies are coming true. Except for the one with her and Alice on a deserted island. Or, really her and Alice anywhere.  
Well, that’s pretty much it. I hope you’re doing well, and I hope you’re not angry with me for ignoring you. I really do want us to stay friends, Kelly. We need to prove that Jeweleds and non-Jeweleds can be friends, okay?  
Yours truly,  
Chloe  
I read it over, click send, and shut my laptop. Then I roll over and go to sleep. I dream of me and Kelly on a deserted island, throwing Jewels into the air and chanting, “Unrequited Love Club!”  
Then Ryan comes up behind me and whispers, “Five girls.”  
Evan pops up in front of me and shouts, “You’re such a Penelope!” and then starts making out with Elizabeth.  
I wake up at 3AM, shaking.


End file.
